Those Sweet Hidden Places

We live in a society where if something isn’t seen, did it really happen?

If you have a salad and it’s not on Instagram, did you really have it? Do those greens still count if the world didn’t see that you had them?

If you go to a pretty coffee shop and someone doesn’t snap a not-so-candid photo of you, were you really there?

These questions seem silly, but they’re actually more real than we realise. Here are some deeper versions of those questions.

If I think I’m pretty good at something, maybe even talented at it, but nobody else ever notices it, am I actually as good as I think I am?

If I constantly put myself out there, put others before myself and give everything I’ve got to something/someone, but I never get appreciated for it, is it even worth it?

You see?

Not so silly, huh?

We live in a world where we need to be seen. We need to be known. We need to be part of something bigger than just ourselves. For the extroverts among us, this need tends to quadruple in strength (can I get an amen, extroverts?)

It seems FOMO isn’t just about missing awesome events anymore, it’s become something deeper. We have a fear of missing out on the world, but we also have a fear of the world missing us, looking over us like we don’t exist, keeping its eye on the ‘bigger fish’ it wants to fry. (side note – how weird is that phrase?!).

There’s this word that I’m terrified of, like completely daunted by the idea of it – the word is ‘obscurity’.

This word literally means – “the state of being unknown, inconspicuous or unimportant.”

Ahhhhhhh!

I get hit with waves of so-called obscurity all the time, it’s probably my biggest insecurity. I’ve noticed that it underlies everything, every not so great part of me is fuelled by my fear that the world doesn’t know or see me.

Queue comparison.

Queue jealousy.

Queue feeling like I’m not enough.

So, here’s what God has had to tell me every single day since I was old enough to care about this sort of thing, and here’s what I want to tell you; obscurity doesn’t exist. Obscurity is a lie. Obscurity is straight up fake news.

And I have proof. Wanna hear it?!

The proof is Jesus’ name (bare with me, this will be good- I promise)

I know we’re not quite there yet, but have a little think about Christmas for a second, the first Christmas, the Christmas that made everything in the world right again. You know, the one where an angel appeared to Mary and told her that she was about to have herself the most important baby of all time. No spoilers but… Cough-enter Jesus-cough.

Well, that angel names the baby for Mary, the angel names him Jesus AKA Immanuel AKA ‘God with us’.

You see, the proof is in Jesus’ name. Jesus’ name makes a mockery of obscurity.

How can you be insignificant if God chooses to hang out with you?

How can you be unimportant?

How can you be unseen?

Unknown?

Unloved?

You can’t be, not when God loves you so much that He used the name of His own son to remind you that He’s always with you. That He always see’s you and He always appreciates you, God loves your company.

You see there really is no such thing as obscurity. Even in the most hidden moments, you’re joined and seen by the only One who really matters.

Even when you’ve been working at your laptop for 800 hours.

Even when you’re having an off day.

He’s there. There’s nowhere else he’d rather be.

I know that the lies of insignificance and unimportance can feel an awful lot like truth at times, and I know that the truth of significance and delight can feel a little hard to reach, like something that’s simply too good to be true. But what if, for just one day, we lived our lives like we believed it? What would that look like?

I think it would look like us not trying so hard. I think it would look less like FOMO. I think it would look a lot more like us knowing who we are because we know whose we are.

You’re known, you’re seen, you’re completely adored.

Believe it.