He Always Understands

Today was not a good day. I will spare you the sad details, but suffice to say, when it came time to clock out, I was relieved to be going home. I stepped in the door of my tiny apartment, closed the blinds, and sat down. It took me a good hour before I finally decided to eat supper, as I tried to block out my day by catching up on emails.

With a sigh, I looked at the clock. It was a quarter to 7 and I knew that if I wanted to get a seat for the evening's concert, I would have to leave now. A visiting school was going to do a joint concert with our choir and I wanted to go and support my brother and listen to the music. I slipped in, picked the perfect seat (end of the row, very back, makes for a hasty exit), and read "What Good is God?" while I waited for the bell choir to share the first piece of the evening.

The music was excellent and as I listened to the words, my soul began to slow its frantic pace and I was calmed. A surprise, Michael was up front introducing me to everyone, and he said a lot of nice things that the crowd of faces affirmed and my weary heart was warmed. I managed to stumble out some appropriate words about myself before finding my safe seat again.

After the program ended and people began to huddle in little groups to chat or trickle out the door to hurry home through the crisp evening air, a couple of my girlfriends came over to where I was sitting and we spent some time catching up. The guys sat several rows ahead and had their own conversation, stopping every now and then to listen to us when we got particularly excited about something humorous that someone else had said. We sat and we talked, we laughed, we reminisced, and my lonely soul was comforted.

You see, today was not a good day. As I sat in my room during my 10-minute afternoon break and cried out to God how life was so unfair, sharing with Him the frustrations that were piling up faster than the first winter's snow, there was one thing that I felt the deepest. I was lonely. I missed my sister, my mom, my friends, and my former coworkers. I missed having people around who understood me and to whom I could share what was happening in my life and they would "get me." I did have people in my life who were close to me but life wasn't the same as it used to be.

This evening, as I sat with family and friends and we shared our hearts amidst the memories and the joy, as my eyes drooped slowly shut and I fought to keep them open, savouring every moment, I knew that God had heard my cry just hours earlier. He knew exactly what I needed to fill that loneliness and He provided the companionship, the listening ear, and the understanding I had been longing for. I felt accepted and loved.

As I hurried home, like the many who had left the chapel over an hour before me, with a cheered heart, I paused for a moment in my thoughts to thank my Father for the blessing He had given me. I was amazed He actually cared enough to create the special memory and I knew. . .He understood.