The Ultimate Acknowledgement
Julie McDonald

Sitting on a Los Angeles freeway stuck in traffic, I see people in their cars, the windows rolled up — lost in their thoughts, their music, their cell phone conversations. … At the grocery store I pass them too; never really looking, not making any eye contact. No wonder in a city of 13 million I can still be lonely.

Each of us needs to be seen, to be acknowledged as a person. The 50 cents I give to the homeless man on the corner isn't about money, it's about acknowledging his humanity. Just like him, at my deepest core is the need to be known.

The hollow sound my soul makes is a cry to be filled by a relationship with someone who knows me without explanations. But it seems like no one else's soul resonates at the same tone mine does. Even the ones who love me — and who are loved by me — are a little out of tune. We misunderstand and get confused. We never quite seem to fit just right.

Standing alone by the ocean, I feel the enormity of God. Away from the noise and clutter of people I feel a deep sense of Him calling to my soul. He saw me before I was born. He knows my mistakes, my joys and my fears. The ultimate acknowledgement is from the One who created me and has been with me every day of my life. While I am here on earth there will always be a hole that can only be filled by God.

"Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways" (Psalm 139:1-3).