These are such trying times – trying to break us, trying to make us change the way we think and feel about life and about each other. Trying to take away our certainties, our sense of security, our sense of what life should be; how it should be lived.

We had already become house sitters – the internet opened up places and people and experiences few had ever known before. We sit where we are, we sit with our devices, we sit and write comments on videos of folks we’ve never met but feel like we know. Sadly, many – far too many – can look around them, where they are, and not see another soul. They are alone. Many of us are alone.

We are taught that when we pray, we are joined by all the souls in heaven so it’s ok to say ‘we’ in those prayers because we are not alone. We pray in the community of the heavenly. We, like Jesus, walk in two worlds. But it feels lonely in this one. We can’t yet walk in the other. Long hours, awake and alone. Folks begin to feel shut off, ignored, hopeless. Each day leads to another that is just like the day before.

If we would only search our hearts – we would know we’re not alone. There is Someone Who cares about us, stays with us in our waking and sleeping, shares our joys and sorrows. Laughs with us; cries with us. No. We are not alone.

We are never alone, even if we feel that way because He walks beside us to keep us company, He walks behind us to keep us going, He walks ahead of us to show us the way.

He is my constant friend. Our constant friend. Your constant friend. Remember He told us He’d never leave us or forsake us? He wasn’t kidding; He didn’t wink when he said that. He didn’t have his fingers crossed behind His back. He said it because He meant; He meant it then and He means it now.

Jesus. My constant friend.