From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind. Psalm 33:13

The microwave beeper was wonky that morning, then my car door chime sounded strange on the very same day that one of my earbuds stopped working.  Sigh. Three electronic malfunctions in one day seemed an excessive coincidence…except they WEREN’T electronic malfunctions. Turns out my ear was malfunctioning! Two days later I was diagnosed with Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss Syndrome (SSHL). Doctor visits confirmed I had lost over 90% of the hearing in my right ear.   Steroid injections into my eardrum (not fun!) and other treatments did nothing. Prognosis: Move on and get a hearing aid!

Oddly enough, I had an amazing sense of peace.  While crowded restaurants were no longer an option for conversation, and the grating tinnitus noise when on the tennis court or in large buildings (including the church sanctuary) was certainly irritating, I felt a strange sense of peace, as though God was gently holding me through it, basically telling me, “Not to worry.”  Occasionally, I felt sad or frustrated, but I had peace.  Definitely not my usual Type A personality response!

Flash-forward seven months: I was swimming my regular laps. But that day, when I got out of the pool, my hearing was 100% restored! The doctors were astounded.

I was not only grateful that God saw fit to restore my hearing but was incredibly grateful for the peace He granted me during the seven months I was deaf in one ear.

MISPLACED PRAISE?

Vignette number two (I promise to tie them together with a neat bow…)

A friend was annoyed with me when I tried to explain my gratitude to God regarding a recent ministry endeavor.  God’s fingerprints are all over this project. He literally wrote the manual for me to follow. I am flabbergasted by its success.

My friend felt that I was crediting God for the huge amount of effort and hard work that I had put into this project   She felt that my toil and labor were the catalyst for the project’s success, not God’s provision.

I wanted to share with her that there are lots of people in this world who work very hard, make huge effort, are smart, diligent, well-educated, yet they do not succeed. My intent wasn’t to discredit the amount of effort that I put into this project, but merely recognizing that I couldn’t have done it on my own. I simply don’t have the skill sets necessary. My success is due to God’s unbelievably kind blessing of my effort. This was His project that He allowed me (actually honored me) to be a part of and blessed by.

And what do these two stories have in common, you ask?  They beg the questions, “Why doesn’t God restore everybody’s hearing?  Why doesn’t He bless every ministry endeavor? Or heal everyone who gets cancer?  Why doesn’t He restore every marriage that is in jeopardy?  Why does He not lavish out love on everyone in every situation?”

HEAVENLY VISION

I didn’t earn it, I didn’t deserve it, yet He chose to restore my hearing and He chose to bless my ministry.

Does He favor some people over others? The book of Mathew tell us “He makes His sun to rise on the evil AND the good, and sends rain on the righteous AND the unrighteous,” so, no, He doesn’t play favorites.

I’m sure it’s been the same with you, that there have been plenty of occasions in life when God has NOT answered prayer for healing, or for success.  Bad stuff is going to happen to good people. We live in a world full of evil. When Adam and Eve chose to be their own God, by eating of the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, darkness was introduced into this world and we all have to deal with the consequences, every day. Whether it’s the loss of hearing, an unsuccessful business, a cancer diagnosis, a failed marriage.

Why does He allows these things to happen to certain people at certain stages of their life, while at other times in their life He heals them?  I don’t know, but what I do know is that He always sees me. He is El Roi, the God who sees, and He grieves with me when I am not healed.  “El”, Hebrew for “God,” and “Roi” from the Hebrew Roi’y meaning “shepherd, or seeing, looking, or gazing.”

THE GOD WHO SEES

When the Pharisees questioned the blind man who was healed by Jesus at the city gate, they were trying to trick him into saying that Jesus was a sinner. His response, “I don’t know if he is a sinner, all I know is that I was blind, but now I see.”

I don’t know what God’s plans are for me, all I know is that I was deaf, but now I hear. All I know is that He put a ministry on my heart and now it’s reaching many people. All I know is that He is faithful.  He sees me and He loves me. Even when I am not healed, or I fail, He is sovereign over all. El Roi, the God who sees. He sees me.