God Sees You.

The Lord sees it all.

Every struggle. Every weight.

All of it.

He saw your shame.

He felt your pain.

He knows it hurt then and still hurts now.

He sees you even as you suffer.

What happens to a dream deferred?

      Does it dry up

      like a raisin in the sun?

      Or fester like a sore—

      And then run?

      Does it stink like rotten meat?

      Or crust and sugar over—

      like a syrupy sweet?

      Maybe it just sags

      like a heavy load.

      Or does it explode?

~The poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes

Sandwiched between the Harlem riots of the 1930's and 40's and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, Langston brilliantly pens the collective yet intimate hopelessness of a people whose aspirations of a new beginning never make it to term. Although written in the context of injustice, this poignant, fifty-one-word chronicle of the African American experience also emotes the universal theme of deep suffering when all feels lost.

In her own way, Elizabeth the wife of Zechariah the priest, understood the despair of a dream deferred.

The worth of a woman in her time was based on her ability to conceive. To be barren was to be of no value,

nonexistent,

not regarded,

not seen.

Decades before old age would have affected Zechariah and his wife's ability to conceive, Elizabeth carried the weight of her barrenness on her own. All this while year after year she heard joy in the voices of girlfriends and relatives over the possibility of birthing the coming Messiah.

Can you see it?

Over and over she watched their bellies grew in response to the blessing of God from generations past,

"Be fruitful and multiply"

all as the value of her peers increased and hers decreased.

She may have been barren, but she was never alone. Heaven saw every struggle, every weight.

All of it.

God saw her shame. He felt her pain.

He saw Elizabeth was a woman who knew how to wait.

As a descendant of Aaron the high priest, stories of his serving through suffering would have been commonplace in her rearing. Aaron, commanded by God not to grieve but continue his priestly duties after losing two of his sons due to an unholy sacrifice, understood living with a loss.

Do we?

The Father witnesses every trial we go through, paying special attention to how we respond.

Do I drawer nearer to God's presence, or turn away in times of pain?

Am I quick to take matters into my own hands, or let God be God?

Elizabeth has me thinking...

What seemed like a loss to others for both Aaron and Elizabeth became a dream deferred but come true when God saw them each press through pain for the sake of his purpose. Jehovah gave an entire tribe, the Levites, to Aaron to assist and minister to him. And Elizabeth bore John the Baptist, predecessor to the Messiah.

But like Aaron, she had to lay down every weight.

When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant... ~Luke 1:24-25a, New International Version

Elizabeth could not imagine by the end of Zechariah's temple service that she would be barren, old, and now a caregiver. Still, she lay with him. We hear nothing of her frustration, no text about how tired or overwhelmed she was. Whatever she might have been feeling, it did not stop her from being who God called her to be. She still had enough in her to lovingly support and comfort her husband despite her own pain.

And God saw it.

He saw her.

“The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.” ~Luke 1:25 NIV

I wonder what could we accomplish if we worried less about views from man and more about how we are seen by God?

There is a favor that awaits us on the other side of suffering and service, and it begins with God seeing us and how we wait:

Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,

    or, whine, Israel, saying,

“God has lost track of me.

    He doesn’t care what happens to me”?

Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?

God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.

    He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.

He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.

    And he knows everything, inside and out.

He energizes those who get tired,

    gives fresh strength to dropouts.

For even young people tire and drop out,

    young folk in their prime stumble and fall.

But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.

    They spread their wings and soar like eagles,

They run and don’t get tired,

    they walk and don’t lag behind. ~Isaiah 40:27-31, The Message Bible

The Lord sees it all.

Every struggle. Every weight. 

PHILLIPA WILLIAMS

Author | Speaker | Ministry Coach

We break cycles here.