Nine-year-old Alice Cogswell sat alone, watching her siblings play.

No one interacted with her. In the early 1800s, not many people knew how to listen to deaf people. But her new neighbor, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, watched. Intrigued with her inability to relate to those around, he tried to communicate with her through drawing in the dirt. He could see that contrary to what most people assumed, she was spirited and intelligent.

With the encouragement of Alice’s father, Thomas went to Europe and brought back a teacher who helped him build the American School for the Deaf. Finally, Alice was given a voice.

Everyone needs to be heard. Today, the deaf community is thriving. But there is still a quiet crowd of timid onlookers who hide in the corners, who sit alone behind closed doors, who can’t find their voice. Social anxiety is a growing epidemic. Perhaps all of us experience a bit of it at times.

But we have a God who knows. When Ishmael’s mother was cast out into the desert with her son, she prayed. God opened her eyes to a spring nearby; she named Him, the “One Who Sees Me.”

When we feel invisible, incapable, weak, God sees and hears us too. If we ask, He can open our eyes and ears to springs of life nearby.