“Why me?”“Because you saw me when I was invisible.”
-The Princess Diaries
My heart melted the first time I heard those lines in The Princess Diaries. I remember relating so much to Mia and her feelings of invisibility so when I saw that scene I thought to myself “I want someone to see me when I’m invisible!”
I’ve struggled with insecurities my whole life, but the Father has been taking me on a journey of healing over the past few years. That’s not to say that I don’t still struggle, but it’s not as bad as it used to be.
Recently some of these old insecurities have resurfaced and as I’ve been processing them with the Father, He showed me that I had this skewed view of Him. He showed me that I thought that I had to beg for Him to see me because if I wasn’t constantly waving my arms to get His attention, He would overlook me.
I didn’t know that’s what I thought about Him, until He showed me— but He’s kind like that. He didn’t want me, His daughter, to believe the lie that I was invisible to Him. Since that revelation, He has been showing me just how much He sees me through dreams, conversations with friends, prophetic words and prayers.
Last week those little insecurities started to creep back in. Immediately, I heard in my spirit, “He is the God who sees me.” I knew that there were many names for God in the Bible so I felt led to look it up and it led me to Genesis 16, which it’s quite the story. Hagar was Sarai’s (Sarah) servant that she gave to Abram (Abraham) so she could bear his children. Hagar gets pregnant and starts treating Sarai with contempt. In return, Sarai treats her so harshly that she runs away. While running, an angel of the Lord finds her and tells her to go back to Sarai and serve her and that she will have a son and to name him Ishmael, which means “God hears” and promises that through him she will have more descendants than she can count.
And because God saw her when no one else did, she gave Him the name El Roi, the God who sees me.
The Message translation of Genesis 16:13 says, “She answered God by name, praying to the God who spoke to her, “You’re the God who sees me! “Yes! He saw me; and then I saw him!””
Isn’t it just like God to see us when we are invisible to everyone else? Jesus did it all the time when He was on earth. He always saw the invisible ones— the sick, the poor, the children, the women. He saw the ones that others overlooked. And the best part about when He sees us is that He not only sees us, but He pursues us and because of that, we get to see Him. We see His eyes full of love staring right at us, inviting us closer to Him.
When I was feeling invisible, the Father reminded me that He was El Roi, the God who sees me. Even at my lowest moments, even when I feel invisible to everyone else around me, He always sees me.
So friend, if you’re feeling invisible or overlooked I want to remind you that the God of the universe sees you. You don’t have to fight for His attention. His eyes are always on you.
-Natasha A.