Noonday Notes

Volume 2, Issue 4

June 5th, 2026

The other day my 16-year-old daughter told me that what she misses most about our family is the inside jokes we used to have. If you're new here, I'm recently divorced and still grieving. I miss the family I once had and the ways we belonged to one another.

As an Enneagram 4, I have spent much of my life searching for people who understand and appreciate the vibe I bring. Classic 4. I've often confused belonging with finding the right people, the right community, or the right place. For a long time, I thought I belonged to myself. But that's a setup of self-reliance I'm neither equipped nor designed for.

Belonging is hard, y'all.

In yet another banger of a sermon at Grace last week, Pastor Joel wove together the stories of Moses, Hagar, and The Terminal into a reflection on belonging, or rather lack thereof. Each found themselves displaced and without a clear place in the world. Hagar is cast into the wilderness. Moses is on the run. Mehran Karimi Nasseri lived in an airport terminal for 18 years with no country to belong to.

Hagar encounters God by a spring in the wilderness and says, "You are a God of seeing." (Gen. 16:13). Of all the ways she could describe God, she names Him according to His attention. His gaze. His presence. She is seen before she is rescued.

The same pattern appears with Moses. In Exodus 3:7, God says, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people…" Seen comes before deliverance, before his calling, before the Promised Land. Before hearing or knowing.

In the garden, there are what we call volunteer plants. They sprout from compost piles or random corners of the yard where no one intended to plant them. Yet somehow they grow. A seed finds enough soil, enough moisture, enough welcome, and decides to put down roots.

Maybe we're not so different. Perhaps you have also spent some of your life looking for your people like I did. We long for communities, friendships, and relationships where we can be belong, not just tolerated.

Hagar reminds us that belonging begins with being seen. Moses reminds us that God sees before He sends. Volunteer plants remind us that roots grow where they are received.

The good news is our deepest belonging is not something we achieve. It begins with our Creator who sees us. I know who I belong to now. I don't have to spend my life chasing belonging anymore. I am seen, therefore I belong.

Read the rest of the newsletter here.