When You Feel Lonely
"'Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed,' says the Lord, who has compassion on you." (Isaiah 54:10)
You see yourself as a small sparrow alone on a housetop. Your heart quakes. I hear your groaning in the late hours. Your eyes dull; your soul despairs. But I am with you.
If you are lauded as the star of a million parades, or if you are alone as a frightened bird on a rooftop, I am there.
If you sleep in the bed of kings and ride the wings of skillful wisdom in all things, or if you shiver alone with pain and muddled thoughts, I am there.
If joyful laughter floods your house, and the smells of bubbling pots of food and bulging ovens pour happily from your windows, or if you sit hunched, cross-legged and alone spooning dinner from a can, I am there.
If you leap like a deer across gymnasium floors, muscles taut and body lithe, or if you amble slowly, heavily, from sitting place to sitting place, I am there.
If you love to conquer impossible worlds, wielding the powerful Sword of the Spirit and the mighty banner of faith that I give to you, or if you cower in the fear of failure or rebuke, I am there.
If you awaken each day robust with health, or if pain envelops every pore, I am there.
If your friends and loved ones press in against you, their affection never waning, and if your years are laced in gold with precious human love, or if you feel abandoned by every soul you ever trusted, I am there.
If you fly the heights and scour the depths; if you freely move through the clouds soaring over the earth with arms outspread, or if you fall with clipped wings, confined within the prison of a carnal mind, I am there.
If you celebrate the rising of the sun and the going down of the same, and if you greet the dawn with trembling expectation, I am there.
If your eyes grow dull and your soul despairs and your voice is without a song, I am there.
I am there in sunlight and in shadows.
I am there in hunger and in fatness,
In your youth and in old age.
I am there so you may turn to me.
I stick to you, like your own skin.
The mountains of the earth will shake and crumble,
Yet My tender love for you is never shaken -
Not a shiver, not a breath,
Not the barest vibration or change.
Because I am there with you.
Marie Chapian
--Noelle--
