While recently walking the crowded and busy streets of London, I became acutely aware of the masses, the ocean of humanity, who I was passing by and would never see again. Literally thousands upon thousands of faces, who each represent lives, families, generations with entire existences that I will never know anything about. I explored ancient ruins of castles and palaces that had housed kings and nobles who had long since vanished, but had really lived in this same space. Just in another time, another world it seems. It’s all so much that it doesn’t seem real. Our human consciousness is so limited in our ability to comprehend the lived experience of other people.
And yet, in all these places, the words Jesus spoke to Nathanael kept coming back to me: “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” (John 1:48). It was so impacting for Nathanael when Jesus made it clear that he didn’t just see Nathanael, but knew him, that Nathanael’s response was nothing less than “You are the son of God. You are the king of Israel!”
How powerful it is when we too come to the realisation that God knows us, that Jesus says to each one of us, “I SEE you”.