Never Forsaken

When my grandfather was dying, I went to the hospital to say goodbye. The halls were empty, and his room was sterile: fluorescent lights, linoleum floor, one potted plant, one family picture. The whole place smelled of vinegar and lemon. I had never seen a person die before, but I heard the death rattle in his breathing and saw his sunken eyes. I wanted to tell him goodbye. I wanted him to know (though I don’t think he was conscious) that even in this gloomy place, he was not alone.

What could be worse than feeling alone in your darkest hour? Yet Jesus felt this very sorrow. From the cross, He cried: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Matthew 27:46). He was not only expressing His own dereliction, but He was also voicing the agony of the whole world. Christ was not speaking off the cuff but evoking one of Israel’s prayers (Psalm 22:1). He echoed Israel’s dread that God might forsake them, and He was also praying with us, speaking the same dread each of us face in our own moments of despair. When we lose a child or a marriage fails, we fear God’s absence.

However, it is precisely Jesus on this lonely cross—and the resurrection soon to follow—that answer our distress. We may feel forsaken, but Jesus reveals the truth: God is always with us, even in death’s valley. We are never forsaken.

Where have you felt forsaken? How has God met you in that forsaken place?

Dear God, I know what it is to feel forsaken. Because of You, I know I am never alone.