Recently I was chatting with a friend who had been let go from her job. This woman is a unique individual who is not a Christian to my knowledge. I have shared the gospel with her on a couple of occasions but she has not yet responded and become a believer in Christ. My friend is fun loving and a self described “wild and crazy” personality.
When I asked her how she was feeling about being let go from her job, she told me that because she is so different she just didn’t fit in with the other staff in the office, although she liked her boss a great deal. What she said next broke my heart. She said, “I realized that I was invisible to them.” She went on to explain that she felt that they really didn’t care whether she was there or not. How sad!
I have been in situations where I felt the very same way—invisible to those around me, like it was immaterial to them whether I even existed or not. It is a lonely and miserable feeling.
I began to wonder how often I had acted in such a way as to make others feel like they were “invisible” to me. As a Christian, I should never treat anyone like they are “invisible”. Jesus certainly never did. He searched out those whom we would consider to be the dregs of humanity and ate and fellowshipped with them, all the while drawing them to Him and offering them living water.
We are all made in the image of God and each of us is special to Him. None of us are any better or more worthy than any others. To call myself a Christian and then shun another person because of the way they act or something they say destroys my testimony for Christ. No one is invisible to Christ. He loves everyone and longs for a relationship with all.
King David gives us the most vivid reminder of this truth in Psalm 139 when he says in verses 1-10, “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”
I am so thankful that no matter how I act or what I say, I am never invisible to God, the Creator of the Universe. It is my prayer that I will be mindful of that and strive to never treat another person as if they were invisible.
