Noticed

Last night, I read the first portion of an online Bible Study that my Pastor's wife is hosting.

*Side note: the YouVersion app is an AMAZING resource, full of thousands of devotional plans and access to various translations of scripture. And it's all FREE! If you would like to do an online study through YouVersion, select a plan and invite me to join you - I would be honored!

Day 1 of this study focused on the story of the woman who had been ill for 12 years and had never been able to find healing. The story explains that when Jesus came to town, she believed that if she could just get close enough to touch His coat, she would be healed. And she was!

However, the healing wasn't the most powerful part of this story. The instant she was healed, Jesus stopped. And He didn't just stop what HE was doing - He stopped EVERYTHING to find out who she was. Jesus was in the midst of a large crowd; Luke 8:42 says, "the crowds almost crushed Him" and yet He brought everything and everyone to an abrupt halt in order to connect with this one woman.

Did you catch that?

Hmmm...He stopped everything...sound familiar?

Our nation, our world, has gone from an almost crushing busyness to a nearly deafening stillness in an instant.

In Galilee, Jesus decided that it was worth it for all of the hustle and bustle and commotion to completely cease if it gave Him the chance to see someone who had hoped to remain unseen. He realized her value and recognized that not only could her body be healed, but also her heart and soul - she had spent 12 years being separated from society because her illness deemed her 'unclean.'

Imagine how desperately she needed to be noticed.

Follow that story with a brief passage I read in Matthew this morning.  In Matthew 15, Jesus was again approached by a woman seeking healing.  This woman was a Gentile, culturally unaccepted by the Jews.  And in contrast to the woman in Luke, she came loudly to the place where Jesus was; begging and pleading for attention.

Jesus did not immediately respond to this woman, but instead seemed to pause and see how things would play out in regards to His followers.  Sure enough, they spoke from a place of cultural influence and asked Jesus to send her away because she was 'bothering' them.

What caught my attention today is the way Jesus chose to address this woman.  As He speaks to her, He first mentions the cultural expectation that God's help was not for the Gentiles, and He then goes a step further by including a derogatory term in the question He asks.  As she answers, she acknowledges this reality and adds to it the reality of her desperation and desire.  At first, this seems shocking!  How could Jesus speak to her that way?  But as I considered the story further, it occurred to me that He was not calling this woman a derogatory term, but rather connecting with her before the healing occurred by addressing the way she saw herself.

Amazingly, Jesus spoke to both women EXACTLY where they were.

To the first, He brought gentle recognition and value where there had been years of ignorance.

To the second, He brought equality and worth where there had been generations of insignificance.

And, in BOTH stories, Jesus stopped everything to connect with them.

Maybe your life has been defined by the pain of ignorance and you have been existing quietly, hanging on to a thread of faith and hoping desperately to just survive and remain unseen.

Or maybe you have lived through seasons of insignificance and you find yourself lonely and clamoring for attention, calling out to anyone who will listen.

Either way,

you need to know that you have been noticed.

The Creator of the universe, the designer of your soul, HAS STOPPED EVERYTHING.  He has put the entire world on pause.  For you.

He.Loves.You.That.Much.

I pray you allow yourself to accept this Truth.  

Let yourself connect with Him today.

Jesus knows where you have been, He sees where you are, and He says you are worth it.