The other day I was having a rough morning; my alarm went
off late, I had to scramble to be ready in time and I made my roommates late.
When we finally arrived to school I walked into my classroom disheveled,
grumpy, with untied shoes and un-brushed hair, or in other words, “a hot mess”.
After tying my shoes, putting down my school bag and grabbing a swig of coffee,
the first thing my eyes clamped on was a wall of photographs displaying my 15
students. Seeing their faces allowed me to pause and take a deep breath. It
stilled the many emotions in me, brought on not just from a rough morning, but
a rough week, or weeks, if I’m honest. “It’s all about those faces”, I thought
to myself. Those faces that don’t care if my hair is brushed or even if my
teeth are brushed (they were), those faces that don’t care how much Spanish I
speak, or how scared I am about the next big transition in my life, those faces
that just love me, simply because I’m there every day, teaching them. Those
faces that say, without words, “Love me. Teach me. Pay attention to me. Speak
truth to me. Encourage me. Praise me. Notice when I do something good. Notice
when I’m having a bad day. Give me boundaries. Correct me when I’m wrong. Tell
me Jesus will always love me. Hear me! See me!” It’s all about those faces. And
if the task set before me that day is simply to love them, see them and hear
them, I can do that.
And isn’t this what we all want? Isn’t this what we all say?
Love me. See me. Hear me. The problem occurs when we think our desire to be
seen and heard and loved must be, or can be met in someone or something other
than Jesus. Or when we begin to doubt that He does actually see and hear us.
But the truth is, He does see us, He does hear us.
“To the Lord I cry
aloud and He answers me.” Psalm 3:4
“The Lord will hear
when I call to Him.” Psalm 4:3
“The Lord has heard
my weeping. The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; The Lord accepts my prayer.”
Psalm 6:8-9
“In my distress I
called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.
From his temple He heard my
voice;
my cry came before Him into His ears.” Psalm 18:6
“You are the God who
sees me.” Genesis 16:13
Just as God saw Hagar (Genesis 16), abused, mistreated,
downtrodden, running away from her problems, He sees us. And He loves us. And that is enough.
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| Some of the "faces" I get to see every day. We've also gained two new faces! Diego is to the left of me and Seoyong is on the far left of the front row. Diego is from Spain and speaks very little English. Seoyong is from Korea and speaks little to no English OR Spanish! They've both added a fun (and challenging!) element to our class. Please pray for these kiddos and their adjustment. |
