As plain as day, I remember the dream: I was lost in the streets of a big city. People walked by but no one paid attention to the little girl clutching her bear. I went up stairs and down alleys, through vacant rooms and parking lots, recognizing nothing. Dusk fell and I stood, terrified, my back pressed to a brick wall.
Some variation of that dream dogged my nights through childhood. I have no idea why an otherwise happy child from a secure home would dream such things but from time to time, that dream resonates in my adult experience. Why is that even surrounded by friends and family, we can be filled with loneliness or feel lost and abandoned? “No man is an island,” as John Donne wrote – and yet we stand alone on the inside, aching to belong.
If you feel alone or vulnerable right now, I encourage you to spend some time mulling over these words that St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome. He was convinced that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ:
“For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
Put yourself into the hands of our loving Lord, and ask him to make himself known to you today.
Leave a Reply