Are You Lonesome Tonight?
As we move into short days and long nights, it becomes easier to feel discouraged. If we are increasingly secluded (by weather and, this year, by governmental edict), we can experience genuine loneliness. I enjoy being alone, but I have a choice in the matter; others do not. Solitude occurs when we want to be alone; loneliness happens when friends and family are taken from us. Solitude soothes, whereas loneliness looms. Because God knows all about us, His Word speaks to us about the painful subject of loneliness. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
We have considered previously that is is possible to be lonesome even in a crowd, especially when it is the wrong crowd, the kind your mother warned you about. Perhaps the innkeeper of Bethlehem was distracted by the crush of people who had descended upon the town because of the Roman census (Luke 2:1-5). We do know for certain that he failed to provide for a pregnant woman (Luke 2:6-7). Normally, the Jewish people were hospitable people with a reverent regard for human life. Surely this innkeeper (and others in the Bethlehem bedlam) should have done something to help this young couple. Verse 7 indicates that Mary had no help from others in her delivery. We are left to wonder if these bustling people remained spiritually lonely for the rest of their lives. Are we busy this Christmas season? Of course we are. However, let us not fall into the snare of the superficial superseding the spiritual, for that is the way of loneliness.