Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
Matthew 9:22
One Friday night in Lisbon, Portugal, I ate dinner with a group of friends at a little restaurant called Maria Catita. The tables were close together and covered with red and blue checkered tablecloths. The restaurant was crowded and noisy, so we had to lean in and speak up to hear each other.
After a few minutes, our waiter handed us some menus and went around the table to take drink orders. He paused a moment before he took mine.
“Sorry, I am curious. Where are you from?”
I answered, “Well, we are all from the US and studying in Spain…and my dad is Filipino and my mom is Puerto Rican.”
“Oh, sorry. I thought you might be from India. I am sorry,” he hurriedly responded.
He brought us our drinks and began to take our food orders.
I was supposed to be looking at my menu, deciding what to eat, but I was curious, too.
“So, are you from India?”
“I am.”
“What brings you to Portugal?”
And amidst the chaos of a noisy, busy restaurant, our curious young waiter from India proceeded to share his heart with a table of strangers. He dreams to own a restaurant one day, even though his father does not think he can. He wants to prove to people that he can be successful, regardless of his thick accent and brown skin. He plans to teach others how to be business owners who treat their employees with kindness and respect. He really wants to make some friends, too.
That conversation was one of my favorite moments of my semester abroad. I think about our waiter sometimes, and pray that he has friends. I think about the kind of restaurant owner he will be…the kind who prioritizes connection over chaos. I think about his courage as he stood in front of a bunch of strangers and shared his heartaches and dreams. I think about how he sees the individuals who make up the masses.
Jesus sees the individuals. I read the story about when he healed the bleeding woman, and I think about how much of that healing must have come from the moment described in the first five words of Matthew 9:22. “Jesus turned and saw her.” He saw her. In the middle of the chaos, he saw her. On his way to do something important, he saw her. As she came out of hiding and trembled with fear, he saw her.
He sees us, too.
He sees us when we’re trying to remain unnoticed in the middle of the crowd. He sees us when we are frustrated and confused, pacing around our empty rooms. He sees us when our hearts are bursting as we sit in a car full of friends with the windows down and the music up. He sees us when we let the wind blow our hair wild and we choose to let it stay in our faces. He sees us when we laugh to ourselves at our own silly jokes. He sees us when we laugh out loud with our favorite people. He sees when we cry by ourselves, desperately wishing to be with our favorite people.
He sees us.
He loves us.
He knows us.
He speaks loving truth over us.
And the cool part is we get to see him, too.
He loves us so much.
