Invisible: A Devotional

I remember watching the TV show SOAP. Maybe you remember it too. One episode in particular struck home with me. It’s the episode in which Bert, played by Richard Mulligan, is convinced he can make himself invisible. There was a time in my life that I so wanted to develop that ability.

As a child and teen, I was blessed with an abundance of shyness. There were so many everyday situations I faced that left me feeling embarrassed, awkward, inadequate…there are just too many to list all the negative adjectives. I so wanted to be invisible. Hidden from everyone and circumstances that left me hyperventilating in my inadequateness. What did I stress about?  To start off with, the agony of: What if the teacher should call on me and I don’t have the right answer? Will I be picked to be on a team in gym class or will I be left standing alone? If I hand out Valentine’s Day cards, will I get one back? If I have a party, will anyone come? 

I worked at being invisible by being quiet. By not making eye contact. By not putting myself into situations where I would be forced to be visible. I would fly under the radar, yet at the same time, I wanted to be visible, confident, included and not crippled by my shyness. It took quite some time, but I finally did figure out how to get around my shyness.

So, why did I say I was blessed with shyness? I wasn’t being facetious. It was a blessing because it enabled me as a teacher to see those invisible children in my classroom. In life, it enabled me to see those invisible people around me. 

All around us there are people who feel invisible. Some, like I was, are invisible out of shyness. Some are invisible because they are experiencing hunger, homlessness or debilitating conditions. Others because of age are isolated and invisible. They all tend to disappear off our radar and into oblivion.