El Roi

The God Who Sees

You didn’t know me

as an infant,

as a child,

as a teenager

(you missed that one

by just one year).

But I was no less

known,

valued,

seen

before.

We met,

and our years,

young, middle, old,

were suffused with

knowing,

valuing,

seeing.

The overlap

of our singular souls,

widened until

there were times

when the mix of them

seemed to be

all there was of you

and all there was of me.

And yet

a vocation of

knowing,

valuing,

seeing

is a kind of

embodied love

that makes room

for the us

and the you

and the me.

And now I am a widow,

No less

known,

valued,

seen

than before.

This new identity,

seemingly the total

sum of who I am

and yet not,

is easier to accept

when I know my Lord

knows me,

values me,

sees me.