Nancy Kuhuski

Have you ever been sitting at a stoplight where someone who is homeless is panhandling on the corner and averted your gaze? We’ve all done it. Yet, what would looking them in the eye and smiling cost us? What could that moment of connection speak to them?

What does it mean to be seen? Jesus always took the time to stop and look people in the eyes… to make sure they knew they were seen… that they mattered…

“20 Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, 21 for she thought, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” 22 Jesus turned around, and when he saw her he said, “Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was healed at that moment.” Matthew 9:20-22

And when he saw her… He could have allowed her to walk away healed, never acknowledging that he had seen her, but he stopped, and he looked her in the eye because she mattered.

We avert our gaze… Sometimes out of discomfort, lack of understanding, or because we don’t know how to help. There are endless reasons…

Eugene Cho put it beautifully, “We may not be able to fix or solve things, but we must recognize the dignity and humanity in every person”. Every person is worthy, not because of what they have done, accomplished, experienced, attained… or if we agree of with them or their life choices. Every person is worthy because they bear the image of God. Just like you or I, they too were created in the image of God. “So God created human beings in his own image.” Genesis 1:27a

So, I have a message to all my fellow strugglers out there in this great big world…

• To the one on the corner holding a sign…I see you, you matter, you are worthy.
• To the one who has miscarried and is silently suffering though grief…I see you, you matter, you are worthy.
• To the one struggling with addiction, numbing your pain and desperately trying to hide your shame… I see you, you matter, you are worthy.
• To the one who looks in the mirror and hates what you see… I see you, you matter, you are worthy.
• To the one who has secret scars of past abuse… I see you, you matter, you are worthy.
• To the one who found herself in a compromising situation and is still wondering if she chose what happened or if it happened against her will… I see you, you matter, you are worthy.
• To the child sitting in an office waiting to see if there is a foster home willing to take you… I see you, you matter you are worthy.
• To the ones who wrote #metoo and the many more who knew it applied to them too… I see you, you matter, you are worthy.
• To the one who has betrayed the one they love… I see you, you matter, you are worthy.
• To the one with a broken heart…I see you, you matter, you are worthy.
• I don’t know your story, but I see you, you matter, you are worthy…

Will you stop and look people in the eye today? Will you show them they are seen, they matter, and they are worthy?

“Empathy can be conveyed without speaking a word—it just takes looking into someone’s eyes and seeing yourself reflected back in an engaged way.” ― Brené Brown