do you see this woman?

"...this woman...", do you see her like I, Jesus, see her? Can you appreciate the totality of what she represents, the vulnerability of her station, the courage to interrupt, the strength to keep moving forward despite the pain and shame? These are a few of the questions that come up whenever I encounter the names of women who dared to follow Jesus.

They broke with tradition. They disrupted societal norms. They faced scorn, punishment, isolation, menacing spiritual forces, and death. They looked at their enemies in the eye and shouted, "NOT TODAY SATAN!!!"

Consider Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Photini-the woman at the well, the woman accused of adultery, the woman who dared to touch the hem of Jesus' robe, and so many other women disciples. They all shared one common trait, they fearlessly followed Jesus.

Now, let's be real, at some point they had to have experienced conflicting emotions, fear and trepidation, uncertainty,  loneliness, longing to belong somewhere knowing that this world was not their home. How many tears were shed in silence? How many nights spent screaming into a piece of cloth stuffed in the mouth to muffle the anguish, the pain, the shame? How many miles walked thru wilderness, dirt, wind, rain, muddy terrain, hill and valley? Can you see them? Do you see them today?

They are all around us, and Jesus is still asking "do you see this woman?" A woman who has faced her family and community in her teenage years with a belly full of baby.

Another woman who is being tormented by demons. Yet another one who cannot show up at the appointed time for women to get water from the well because she has been rejected by her husbands and despised by the rest of the community. Do you see them?

These women still walk among us looking for a fraction of compassion. I am that woman, still here, still crying, still asking "do you see THIS woman?" We are seeking solutions that endure not just a bandaid. We do not need to hear more stories, nor empty platitudes. We need assurance. We need affirmation and confirmation. We need healing. We need a universe to breathe and expand. We need water to swim, to flow, to move, to clean and purify. We need fire to burn, to glow, to illuminate.

WE NEED TO BE SEEN AS WE ARE!