The key to all relationships is loving the other person lavishly, with no expectations—finding our solace in God alone. (It generally--but not necessarily--finds its sublime test and fulfillment in a marriage.) It is part of the Fall to be chronically lonely, but God uses it to help us stick to Him like glue. We were meant for deep, endless relating in all directions—and we can look forward to having that in the coming age. It all went to ribbons at the Fall. Hence the deep, gnawing, yearnings for a more and better experience of love between humans.
I see it so clearly in my visits to a seniors’ independent living apartment building. One lady dies of cancer, alone, on her couch. She cracks her door open in her terribly hot apartment (that is how I see her in there day after day) with no money to buy an air conditioner and I see her languish on her couch. Another lady moves here with no one in the city to help her and no relatives arrive...so she lands with all of her boxes stacked high still months and months after her move, paralyzed to know where to begin sorting them and making a home for herself. Another lady retires, comes here, and because all of her friends were made at work and enacted only at work, now finds herself with frequent panic attacks over being desperately lonely. (I taught her a Bible overview the other day and gave her our little new gospel in colors booklet). The world is full of agonizing loneliness.
The Lord is God. Triumphant. Comforting. Our all in all.
Yours in the trenches,
Renee
