Do you remember the earliest age you felt rejected? By the time I was 8 years old, I’d lived in 4 different places: Texas, Italy, Florida, and Oklahoma. Each move meant making new friends. It took time, but I never felt rejected in my efforts until we moved to Oklahoma. My family had settled into a church where I was soon to learn, by experience, that 8 year old girls are not always the nicest beings on earth. I was often - directly and indirectly - reminded by these girls that I was not one of them. Our families didn’t share a history, we had not been friends since the womb, and we might not ever be friends now either. These things were repeated to me often by these girls.
There are few things I’ve experienced in life that are quite as painful as rejection.
When I was 9, and still attending this church, some women came to pray over students in the Sunday School class. When it was my turn, the woman praying for me said she saw for me a picture of something in nature. This thing in nature is as common and as specific as a sparrow. It wasn’t a sparrow, but because this thing in nature continues to be significant for me, I am going to keep it private and use “sparrow” throughout this story as a replacement. The woman who got this picture for me of a "sparrow" said that I was beautiful and could appear tough, but that I was also fragile and easily broken.
I felt so seen and loved in that moment. I’d been trying my best to get these mean girls to like me. But in that moment I felt I was already seen as beautiful and accepted, even in the midst of feeling very broken.
Fast-forward about 4 years. My family and I are still attending the same church (though the girls who had hurt me, and who eventually became my friends, were no longer attending). Again I am in Sunday school. My teacher has the class form two lines facing each other with our eyes closed. We prayed for the person in front of us and then spoke any prophetic words we might have received. The person who happened to have me first was actually my teacher. With her eyes closed she said she got a picture of a “sparrow” and went on to describe things about beauty and delicacy. (I’m sure she was glad to see me when she opened her eyes instead of some macho guy who might have been offended by being described as beautiful and delicate).
Later that year my dad was in a prophetic training class. The assignment was to look at a “sparrow” that the teacher had brought into the room. My dad sketched a picture of it and wrote a poem about it. The "sparrow" had made him think of me, so he wrote the poem about the sparrow for me and give it and the sketch to me.
Each of these separate incidents were not ones where the individuals knew about my having received words about being a “sparrow” before. I’ve continued to receive timely and encouraging words with this specific symbol. My God sees every small and great thing. He knows the number of hairs on my head and yours. He is able to give words of encouragement through His people that show He knows you and sees you.
Friends, if you have experienced pain or rejection, I would love to pray for you. I can’t command or compel God to speak, but I have sometimes received words or pictures that I believe were from Him and that have been an encouragement to those I’ve prayed for. The effects of rejection can be deep and far-reaching. The healing can be a slow process. I can’t explain everything perfectly when it comes to healing, all I know is that one of God’s many names is Jehovah Rophe, “God Who Heals” and that I’ve experienced deep and far-reaching healing in Him.
