Friends in High Places

Friends in High Places. Sometimes in life, we can feel quite lonely for reasons that might be physical, emotional, or spiritual. Perhaps we are living far away from support, need to travel a lot, or perhaps we recently lost a loved one. We can feel emotionally alone, as though no one understands us. Our circumstances can leave us feeling isolated. We can feel spiritually isolated because we find ourselves in the circumstances it seems our friends don’t understand. Any of these types of loneliness can be very painful.

The truth is that we’re never alone. We know our Lord sees and knows all we are enduring. Yet, when the suffering is great, it can be helpful to have the awareness of someone who was not divine praying for us and cheering us on. Thankfully, there are saints of all ages, all walks of life, and who were challenged in just about any way you can imagine. They responded to the grace the Lord held out to them and in doing so chose to grow through hard times rather than go through hard times. The same God who extended such grace to them extends grace to us that is just as powerful! He is unchanging and is All-Powerful!

A couple of years ago a friend and I were chatting in a coffee shop, and I was sharing about how much I really love Simeon, the old man in the temple when Jesus was presented to and dedicated to God. He had been promised that he would not die until he saw the messiah. How many babies must have been brought in on a regular basis and dedicated to God. Yet, on the day Jesus was brought in Simeon knew that he knew that baby was Jesus! He was so sure that was the fulfillment of God’s promise that he prayed, telling God he could now die happy because God had done what He said He’d do for him. That is amazing! How in touch with the Holy Spirit must he have been to see that so clearly! It’s not like Baby Jesus had a neon flashing light on Him.

When I shared this with my friend, she said that Simeon must be really devoted to me. What??? Isn’t it that I’m really devoted to him? She said the way she thinks about it is that in Heaven they are so filled with charity and knowing what we’ll endure or be called to in this life they are drawn to us and decide to commit to praying for us. Wow!!! That made so much sense to me and at the same time it has also given me a tremendous sense of being really cared for by the saints – our heroes and big brothers and sisters who are committed to pray for us.

Friends in High Places