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.)
Luke 1:26-35 delineates the Virgin Birth, a central tenet of Christianity. That the Messiah would be born of a virgin was predicted in Isaiah 7:14. Obviously, this was a miracle – a necessary miracle. Mankind’s Savior needed to be human to be a substitute for us. However, He also needed to be without sin and, in fact, without a sin nature: He could then be our perfect substitute. Fully man and fully God, Jesus fulfilled every requirement. We understand these things today. However, what would the people in Mary’s days have believed? They would have thought the worst (read John 8:41 and catch the sneering tone of innuendo from the Jewish leaders, thirty years after Jesus’ birth). Imagine the loneliness of young Mary; think of the looks and the comments. No work of God is without difficulty in this sin-cursed world. However, God provided immediate companionship – her cousin Elizabeth, now six months pregnant with the Messiah’s forerunner, John the Baptist (Luke 1:36-46). Her betrothed quickly married her (Matthew 1:18-25), and soon she had her Son – the Son of God. Her strong relationship with God deepened further (Luke 2:19). Two applications come to mind. First, may we not be the kind of people who casually and caustically assume the worst about others, thus adding to their loneliness. Second, may we marvel at the intricate thoroughness of God’s plan that included a remedy for Mary’s legitimate feelings of loneliness. He does not leave His people alone.