“No one saw me”

"When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her…” Luke 7:13

Over and over again during Shyima's story about life as a child slave living in the USA she said those words.  At ten years of age she was trafficked into the United States to continue working as a house slave to an Egyptian family.  She was the little girl who stood at the passport counter with a false passport and a trafficker who shared her last name but didn’t look a thing like her..and no one saw her.  She took the children to the park in an Orange County gated community regularly.  Sitting there watching the kids play but not playing herself...and no one saw her.    Walking the kids to the bus but not getting on herself...and no one saw her.  Until someone at last did see her and realize that something looked off. They reported the suspicious situation to the police and so began her journey to freedom.  Shyima Hall shared her story that she recount's in her Book Hidden Girl in our church's Justice Matters conference last week.

My heart was torn in two as I kept hearing her repeat that horrible phrase "No one saw me".  How many people pass by us daily that we just do not see or choose not to see.  How many people that so desperately need to be seen but we blindly walk past.
In Kosovo when we arrive to visit a family we are welcomed enthusiastically into their homes.  To have a guest is blessing in the culture that I live in. Some of the families we visit may be difficult to look at.  Their poverty can be ugly or their situations seemingly hopeless.  The challenge is to see them, to see their value and beauty despite those unattractive circumstances.  I hope that in the very least that I see the people that God has sent me to serve.  However not with my own eyes but the eyes of Christ who looks upon them with a gaze to passionate that it lead Him to sacrifice Himself for them and the rest of us.