My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. -Matthew 26:38, NIV
I’m also thankful for growing up with a freakishly close extended family! It was burdensome sometimes (especially for my mother-she had to cook!), but it was worth it. I liked playing with my cousins, desiring them to come home and play with us. We’d always lose ourselves in our wild imaginations of courts and novelas till the wee hours of the morning. I miss them, really. I really do.
Because we lived on a house in the middle of the commercial part of el pueblo, we didn’t have many friends to play with. In front of the street, there was the video store; on the left, a house-turned-restaurant; on the right, a resta…opti…resta…WIC sto…opti… Well, I don’t know. However, I was never bored, I was never alone; the house was always full of people eating, drinking, playing dominoes, and having a really good time.
It’s understandable. It’s as human as breathing, eating, poo…erm…I mean, taking care of our biological dispositions, and making some mistakes. However, it’s easy to dismiss loneliness as child’s play-and sometimes we feign to feel alone. But if something’s tugging hearts long enough…something’s been disturbing our minds…something’s been tingling down our spine…it’s loneliness, all right. And it wants to stay. It’s easy to call the methods, but it’s harder to find the source.
Everybody has suffered through a bout of loneliness. It’s normal. Even Jesus faced it.
Yes; I mean that Jesus.
I know. Inconceivable! Why would God put Himself through such masochism? He can’t feel loneliness. He’s got angels and angels and archangels at His disposal. He’s got the universe to play with like Sims! He can even bring dinosaurs back that eat chickens and smell like new babies and fart butterflies! He has no reason to feel lonely. He’s got nothing to lose-He’s never gonna lose, anyway!
Why did He feel like that? What have we done…
Answer: Quite a lot. And not the good kind. Shall I enumerate our grievances?
- Lies.
- Adultery.
- Unreasonable anger.
- Doubt.
- Treason.
- Denial.
- Worry.
- Idolatry.
- Greed.
- Lust.
- Rebellion. Against our humanity. Against our nature. And even more.
The list goes on and on and on and on. There’s a lot to say, but when He felt alone in Gethsemane, felt alone in the midst of the crowd, felt alone in the midst of a cross that never had His name on it…Yeah, there were pretty good reasons why He felt alone.
Things change now, though; He left, and now we’re alone.
But…why are we alone ?