Today I am praying for people who are feeling especially lonely. Loneliness is a horrible feeling. I recall reading, many years ago about a lady who put a classified ad in the paper trying to sell something. She did not really care whether she sold the item. She just wanted someone to call her and talk to her.

In these days, Pat and I have been reading together The Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp. It is a book to read the twenty-five days leading up to Christmas. It “just so happened” the reading for December 12 spoke of loneliness. Here is what the author wrote.

“There are advent moments when you’d like nothing more than to order a Christmas miracle. The one you need when it feels like no one really sees you. No one sees how alone you really feel. How overwhelmed by the work and unappreciated by the people. No one sees that you just want someone to cup your face and look into your eyes and say your name from somewhere deep inside, like a calling home, like a belonging – like a holding that has you around all the fragile places and won’t leave you.”

Then she closed that days’ reading with these words: “The miracle of gifts is never not coming. When your Father’s hand isn’t readily apparent, it’s only because He’s readying gifts. Gifts always come out of the unseen and hidden places.

May God be especially near you today. Maybe He also enlighten you as to how you could be a blessing to a lonely person today. If you are able, I am praying you will be attending worship tomorrow in a Christ-honoring church.

Take care