Overlooked: Finding Your Worth When You Feel All AloneSample

Day One: Does Anybody See Me?

Have you ever felt invisible?

If you and I could sit and share a cup of coffee, we could probably swap stores of times when we’ve felt deeply unseen. The longing to be seen and known is a basic need ingrained in all human hearts. We quietly wonder: Does anybody see me?

We are a society obsessed with the attention and approval of others. We only need to turn to TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram for proof. We operate in a system where more attention equals more love. The more we are seen, the more our confidence grows.

But what do we do when we feel overlooked? How do we find the love, approval, and self-assurance we long for when we can’t command the attention of others?

While the world encourages us to do whatever it takes for others to see our “truest selves”, God’s Word gives us a different answer to soothe the longing to be seen that lingers in our hearts.

We find God’s compassionate attention at the very beginning of the Bible in Genesis 1: God created man and woman in his image. He saw Adam and Eve and declared they were very good.

The first humans rested in the attention and approval of their Father. Adam and Eve’s hearts didn’t question, Does anybody see me? They knew the answer, steady and true: My father sees me and loves me.

But in Genesis 3, the first sin opened their eyes to their own nakedness. In shame, they hid from their Father. And, like them, many of us have been hiding ever since. In our hiding, we look to each other for attention and approval. But our true worth can only be found in our Creator.

Though the sin of the garden separated humanity from God, Jesus’s perfect life, death, and resurrection rescues us out of hiding and invites us to draw near to the throne of the Father. Through Jesus, God can declare over us again, “I see you and you are very good.”

Jesus, thank you for covering my sin so that I can stand before the Father unashamed. Father, thank you for seeing me and giving me worth as a child of God, made in your image. Help me to look to you alone for the attention and approval I long for.