Just know you’re not alone I’m gonna make this place your home.
[Phillip Phillips, Home, The World from the Side of the Moon]
I live in a town with 20,000 other people, give or take. This time of year, there are a lot more people living here. People of all shapes, shades, and sizes look for hermit crabs on the beach, cast lines into the river, catch a Gatemen game, and sleep under the same starry sky that hangs over my house. Most days, I do my best to make this place I live in and love a good home for my 20,000+ neighbors. I hope they know they aren’t alone. I’m here.
Loneliness is a peculiar kind of spiritual homelessness. It has nothing to do with the place I keep my furniture or the bit of asphalt that my car sits on. It’s more about whether I feel lost in this big world. Am I alone in a vast, dark, empty universe? What if I get lost in the billions of years that have already passed and the billions to come? Is this cosmic neighborhood simply too big to call home?
If I don’t pay attention to the demons who fill me with fear, if I take a deep breath and open my eyes, I can see my town, planet, galaxy, and era for what they are: the place God made my home. The place God made the home of all my neighbors.
The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
Psalm 19:1-4