You see me, and You know me

While walking back from mass one sleepy morning, I noticed a little girl in her school uniform about a hundred yards away. She wasn’t standing or even walking, she was running. It’s not too unusual to see kids running through our neighborhood, but what I wasn’t expecting was for her to be running toward me. As she came closer I recognized her as the daughter of a woman who comes to the faith group we hold for mothers in our neighborhood who have been abused, abandoned, and come from other unfortunate yet not uncommon struggles. I had played with this little girl--whose name I had never learned--for the whole of just one afternoon while her mom listened to a talk about healing and had a time for prayer while the group met. We played tag and laughed and I gave her piggy-back rides, and at the end of the meeting she went home and that was it.

I didn’t really expect to see her again, and I definitely didn’t expect her to know or even remember me after just one afternoon of playing together. Yet here she was, running toward me.  She finally reached me, barreled into me, and squeezed my legs in a tight hug.

I was stunned. How could it be that this little girl had the confidence to run to me, hug me after knowing her for so little time? Why would she even want to?

It’s a well-kept secret of living as a missionary that as you give yourself to God to serve others, it really ends up feeling like God is serving you through others more. As I blinked back tears as this little girl finished squeezing me and ran off to school, I realized that even though I love being in Honduras, sometimes I just don’t feel very “seen” here. As if I were here, but my presence replaceable, unnoticed.

Through this sweet little girl, God make it clear.

He sees me. He sees me, knows me, loves me, and wants me to receive from the very people I came to give to.