Loneliness is hard.
I’m speaking from experience. Sometimes I’m so intensely lonely I feel exactly the opposite of what this miraculous verse assures me. I feel like no one is with me when I pass through the turbulent waters of this life; like those same waters are going to hopelessly overwhelm me, overturn me, overflow me, beat me up and spit me out—and no one will care enough to make the futile attempt to stop it; like when I walk through fire, I will be scarred and burned and singed and scorched and melted from the sheer force and pressure of the fire. That I’ll always be alone.
But then again, feelings are rot.
I have people—and that’s people just on this earth, I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet—who care about me. Who would protect me no matter what the cost. Who will, to the absolute best of their ability, be with me for as long as they live. Never leave me, never abandon me to those rushing waters. Never leave me to the mercy of that fire. (What I did to deserve this other than scream my head off for the first three years of my life, I have absolutely NO idea.) And I have people for whom I would do the same. (What they did to deserve it generally entails their putting UP with three-year-old screaming me.)
Okay, NOW for the best part.
Having people on this earth who care for me is an immense blessing and an immense gift. I don’t where I would be right now without my family.
But humans’ love is not essential to my survival. I could be completely cut off, adrift, forsaken, scorned and rejected by every single human being on this planet, and—while that would be traumatizing—here’s the thing: I don’t need them.
Plain and simple truth. I don’t need every single human being on this planet. (I don’t WANT every single human being on this planet. I’m quite happy with just a few.) Mankind’s love is fickle. Whenever you give your heart away to a human, there is always an immense risk involved. When you love a human, there is always a very good chance of horrible, soul-wrenching, heart-aching pain. I know—I’ve felt it—and whether it’s betrayal that leaves you sick and feeling as though you’ve been sucker-punched in the gut, unable to breathe, or the inevitable loss of losing someone to the curse of death, there is always the possibility—the likelihood, in fact—of pain.
Now, if humans were all there were to love and be loved by, the logical choice—other than suicide—would be to never love anyone. Look out for Number One. Survival of the fittest. Lock your emotions away, deep down where they can’t ever surface. And that, too, is a horrible place to be—in the long run, even worse than the pain of loving and losing.
Here’s the thing, the BEST thing—humans aren’t all there is. (Relax…I haven’t bought into Intergalactic Ruler Xenos and his platoon of little green aliens yet.) You can love a certain Someone with all your heart and mind and strength and soul and not ever have to be afraid of hurt from Him. He’ll always be with you, like He said in that verse. He’ll never leave you nor forsake you. He’ll never betray you. He is always there for you. For all your problems. (I know I’ve covered this before, but the enormity and beauty of it all is beyond my comprehension! I could write devotionals on this for the rest of my life and still not exhaust the subject.) He’ll never let you go through the waters alone, or let the rivers overflow you, nor will He let that fire burn or even scorch you! You are precious to Him. The Creator of the Universe SAYS so, in this very chapter! Even when the world is set against you, He’s FOR you—and He created the world. And since He’s made it quite clear in His Word that whoever has a problem with you has a problem with HIM…well, I doubt I need to elaborate further than that. (Hint: Like Gianna Jessen said, it’s written on our foreheads that we’re His, and “you’d better be nice to me because my Daddy rules the world.”)
Is that something or is that SOMETHING??
