NEVER WILL I LEAVE YOU
I was assigned Group B of the Southwest flight that morning, which meant most of the window and aisle seats would be taken by the time I boarded. As I boarded the plane, the stewardess announced that the only seats remaining were middle seats. She encouraged us to secure the first middle seat available. I located one with an overhead compartment that had room for my carry-on and quickly sat down.
As I settled in, I glanced at the young lady seated to my left in order to say hello, but her head was resting securely against the window frame with her eyes closed. Not once in our two and a half hour flight did she open her eyes or utter a word.
As the pilot announced our upcoming landing, giving instructions to the crew, the flight attendants began collecting trash. As the attendant neared our row, the young lady sat straight up, eyes wide open, and asked for a snack and a drink. The flight attendant politely met her request. After she had eaten her snack and drank her soda, she closed her eyes once again.
As we landed in Memphis and I was waiting to exit the plane, I turned and asked her if she lived in Memphis or if she was visiting. Her answer took me by surprise. Within a matter of a few minutes, she told me that she was from the West Coast. She went on to say that she was pregnant and that the baby’s father was a man from whom she needed to distance herself. She had come to Memphis to live in a home for single mothers until the baby was born.
As we drove off with her standing all alone on the sidewalk, my heart broke thinking of how she must have felt being pregnant, away from friends and family, and in a strange city all by herself. Not only was my heart broken over her situation, but it was broken over the loneliness she must have been experiencing. Tim Hansel says of loneliness, Loneliness is not the same as being alone. Loneliness is feeling alone…no matter how many people are around you. It is a feeling of being disconnected, unplugged, left out, isolated.
Until four years ago, when my husband passed away, I had rarely experienced loneliness, the feeling of being without company, cut off from others, not frequented by human beings, sad from being alone, producing a feeling of bleakness or desolation. But since Mark’s death, I have experienced intense times of loneliness. This has caused me to have a profound understanding and compassion for what many people experience each and every day.
In those moments of intense loneliness, I have found comfort in the Bible stories of those who experienced periods of loneliness. In order to fulfill Adam’s need for companionship and to guard him from loneliness, God created Eve. Leah, the first wife of Jacob and Rachel’s sister experienced loneliness as she continually took second place in Jacob’s heart to her younger sister, Rachel. Yet, God comforted Leah.
Then there was Hagar, Sarah’s servant. She fled Sarah’s jealousy and rage, thus finding herself alone in the desert with her son, Ishmael. Hagar was prepared to die in her loneliness, but God graciously rescued her and her son. David often felt alone as he wandered in the wilderness hiding from King Saul. Yet, God comforted him.
Even Jesus, our Savior experienced loneliness. Suffering and dying can be lonely experiences. In the garden just hours before His death, Jesus, surrounded by His friends, felt alone and forsaken. In Matthew 15:34, Jesus cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (ESV). These words were spoken by Christ shortly before He suffered and died on the cross.
Not one of these within God’s story was ever truly alone. God never forsook them. As Christians, we are not alone, even though at times we may feel alone. God promises to always be with us. We see this in Moses’s words spoken to Joshua and God’s people, The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. (Deuteronomy 31:8
As a daughter of the King, I find great comfort and great encouragement in knowing that even in moments of intense loneliness, I am never truly alone—and neither are you. Our heavenly Father is always by our side!
Dianne