Invisible

I had lunch with someone I hadn’t seen since childhood today and she put into words something I’ve had a hard time getting from my head onto paper. She said being divorced with kids made her invisible when she went to church. Yes, I thought, that’s it exactly. After attending the same church for years I found myself separated from my husband and suddenly invisible.

Not all churches treat broken families as if they somehow were less than there but they may make invisible teenagers, people who don’t dress to their standards or those who like me are less than young.

There are invisible people all around us. Oh they’re there all right but if we pretend they aren’t then we don’t have to go out of our way to deal with them. You know, they might want something from us or perish the thought be in some kind of need and we really don’t want to deal with that.

We are the church, the bride of Christ and we have taken erasers out instead of magnifying glasses. As the Brand Heath song says:

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see,
Everything that I keep missing,
Give your love for humanity.
Give me your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten.
Give me Your eyes so I can see

God give us the will to not only look but to see with your eyes and with your arms reach out and make those whose lives are broken visible. Even the most broken of us are valuable in God’s eyes and deserve to be seen.

Who Told You That Your Were Naked

We find ourselves at a distance from God. We’ve been too busy to read His word, too busy to worship or we show up physically but not spiritually and without even realizing it a little sin slips in. Maybe we haven’t done anything awful but we find excuses not to do something we know we should or we get angry and the gatekeeper is off duty and all sorts of nastiness flies out our mouth. Been there? Sorry to say I have.

When I realize what I have done or not done Satan is right there telling me that I have once again made a mess of things I am once again a loser and God must find me to be a horrible disappointment. And when God does finally wade through the jungle I’m hiding in He isn’t angry, disappointed perhaps, not angry. He does want to know why, when I realize I’ve mucked things up, I didn’t go looking for Him, why am I hiding. Like Adam and Eve I have realized I am naked and His question is “who told you, that you were naked”.

“Who told you that you were a failure, unworthy of My love?”

When we hide from God we are not listening to God’s promises we are listening to the deceiver’s lies. The deceiver is telling you how unworthy, unlovable, and hopeless you are. The deceiver is telling you “you are naked”.

You have been clothed by the forgiveness of God because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He has paid for your robe with his life so that you never have to appear before God naked. Don’t let anyone ever come between you and God, especially yourself.

 

"And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And He said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?"