I was feeling unseen. You know, that pesky feeling that creeps up on you when you’re still in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner, long after everyone else has finished “helping”. I know it’s not true, don’t I? I remind myself I am loved and that serving my family is loving my family and loving my family is serving Christ and I breathe deep again…So why does the ache linger? I look out the window at the fading sunset and I pause and give thanks for His beauty always all around me and I hear His tender words like a healing balm to my soul…YOU ARE SEEN…and my mind is instantly reminded of the story I recently read about a widow, weeping over her dead son and the compassionate touch of Jesus.

Do you know the story? In Luke 7:13-14 we read a truth so precious, that if you stop to ponder its meaning for you, it really reads like a love story. Jesus, on His way to a village, came across a funeral procession. A widow had lost her only son, her pain was deep, her fear of the future great, and we read the words “The Lord saw her”. And we can read…YOU ARE SEEN. He had compassion on her, and He reached out His hands, the same ones that flung stars into space and carved rivers through wastelands and He touched her son and called him back to life. With that touch and with those words He called her back to life too. He called her seen and He called her loved.

Maybe you know that place too? Deep pain? Fear of the future? I think we can all relate…but place yourself in the story and read the truth again…He see’s YOU! He calls you back to life, back to love. Oh the comfort that simple truth brings. Wherever you are. Whatever you are walking through He see’s you. He see’s me. And He has compassion on you. How precious is that? He has compassion on you because He cares for you. He knows the details and He cares deeply. That fear you’re holding onto, that no-one else knows about. He knows. That rejection, that loss, that need, He knows. He knows the details of our lives and they are important to Him. So important that He wants to reach out and touch us, to bring change to our lives by bringing us back to life.

Have you ever wondered though, why He said “Do not weep”. At first we’re told that He has compassion on her, a weeping mother, a widow whose only son has just died and then He tells her not to weep. To me that didn’t seem compassionate. Crying is therapeutic, we’re told crying, weeping, is part of the healing process. So why would He tell her not to? Perhaps His compassion ultimately comes when He speaks those words, because He comes to bring comfort and peace and change to her story. He doesn’t say do not weep, and then walk away. He doesn’t just offer empty words of condolences. The Word of life comes and offers her life. He lifts up her son and lifts off her burden. He saw her need and saw her pain and saw all she had lost when she lost her son and those details were important to Him. He had compassion on her and offered her life.

I think sometimes we can identify with both the mother and the young man in this story. Often we are desperate for His touch, yet for His touch to be felt we need to be still. Often we are desperate to rise up out of our painful situations, but in order to arise, as the young man did, we need to be still. Maybe you are in a place where hope is lost? Life is painful or seems empty? He wants to lift you up. He will pause His journey, have compassion on you and reach out His hands to you. He wants to call us back to life.

For us, today, He offers us the same compassion. He comes to us and says “Do not weep”. They are not empty words, but a promise for life. He waits for us to be still, to receive His touch. Perhaps our healing may look different, perhaps our circumstance may not change the way we think it should or even when we want it to. But He will always lift our burdens so that we can arise, despite the circumstance. He comes along side us, He places His hands upon us, upon our circumstance, and our story and says Beloved Arise.

He says today, YOU ARE SEEN. Those are the 3 unlikely love words you need to hear. Take His hand today, receive His touch of compassion, and let Him take your weeping and exchange it for a life lived loved by Him!