A few years back I stumbled across an old sign from a construction site. It was actually an old hospital wing that was being demolished and rebuilt. The sign was discarded on the ground next to a dumpster filled with trash and debris. The sign read: “Isolation Ward.” They used to put several people together who contracted a contagious disease. Most modern Hospitals don’t have wards anymore- however, most have private or semi-private rooms rendering the term “isolation” nearly obsolete. And for us, that is a good thing. Have you ever experienced isolation? Isolation is the feeling of being pushed-away, the feeling that you have of people who do not want to be around you? If you feel like this, you are not alone! And what is more, its not you- its this world that is creating more and more this sense of isolation and disconnectedness. Sometimes you may feel like the more you try to reach out to others, the more you sense their rejection. This causes a lot of pain, and what compounds the pain is you feel you have no one whom you can trust to express that pain. This compounds the isolation and withdrawal to protect you, and then others who may have thought to reach out to you sense that you don’t want them around, so they feel isolated too- by you!
Isn’t that a terrible thing that the devil does to us- making us feel unwanted, lonely, cut off from God as well as our fellow man? He knows that we were created for community- especially community in fellowship with God. Satan instilled this legacy of isolation in man the day he enticed Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. When she offered it to her husband- not wanting to be cut off from her- he ate of it too, thus cutting off both of them from the openness and unhindered fellowship they had with their Creator. This sense of isolation from God projects itself upon every other human relationship, including ourselves. Sin creates a deep sense of alienation, anger, and despair. The loneliness becomes unbearable.
Yet God is still here, reaching out to you and wanting to love you. He says, in Jeremiah 31
Thus says the LORD: “ The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness— Israel, when I went to give him rest.” The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: “ Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt.” (Jeremiah 31:2-4a)
Jeremiah speaks of his people who were not only isolated, but they were expelled from their homes and their land and taken in exile to Babylon. You can’t get much more isolated than that- to be uprooted from all that you love and taken to a strange place. Yet God continues to affirm His love for His people. In the wilderness of isolation, God tells them they have found grace. He continually draws us with His lovingkindness, and seeks to rebuild a love relationship that was broken during the Fall.
God seeks to rebuild you as well today. He seeks to mend Your broken heart. He seeks to overhaul broken friendships and abused trust and disappointed relationships. But to do this, you must do this very terrifying thing and surrender Your heart to God to fix it. But once He has rebuilt Your heart, you will find yourself strangely drawn to others as well.
God has taken down the Isolation sign and has thrown it in the dumpster. He reaches out to you in love and restoration today. If you feel lonely won’t you take His hand right now?
Have a blessed day!
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