A few evenings ago, I found myself alone for a few hours in a sea of strangers. The room was very loud and very crowded, everyone standing shoulder to shoulder, sipping and eating and mingling. I stood in the midst, watching and wondering how much longer.
Then, against all odds, there appeared beside me someone I knew. I hadn’t seen her for many years, and I had forgotten her loveliness—warm and welcoming, her wide, clear eyes brimming with kindness. She was an island of comforting with-ness in the midst of the noise and confusion. We only talked for a little while, but the goodness of being together in that sea of strangers still warms like a fire on a winter’s day.
"There are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematician that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one." G. K. Chesterton
“Father, thank you. . . .” John 11:41