We were coming home to Mukilteo from Montana last month, during our state’s extended wildfire season.  Driving along on I-90 was interesting, because the sky was more orange than usual.  I say usual, because dust storms frequently whip up the forever-reaching farmlands of eastern Washington in late Summer, creating mini-tornadoes and that orangey tint to the sky.  This trip, though, was different. The orange was all around us, almost like how I would picture the sky of Mars.

After hours of this unusual experience, we finally reached The Gorge, the Columbia River gorge.  Before we descended down the 560-foot vertical drop to the river bridge below, we saw a blue sign: “Scenic View”.  It pointed to an exit, or what I assumed was an exit, because we could not see anything beyond the sign itself!  Scenic View??  All we could see was the thickest blanket of orange cloud you could imagine.  At that moment, we had a weird sensation: we actually felt alone, surrounded by the smoke but also disconnected from the reality of what was around us, and requiring me to be all-the-more careful of my driving.

For the next half hour or so, I thought about how ironic The Scenic View That Wasn’t was.  And then of course my brain went into sermon-building mode.  The sermon title could be “You Are Never Alone”.  Yeah, good topic to go along with this good imagery.  The heroes of the story would be King David (of David and Goliath fame), Joseph (think coat of many colors), Elijah (rides a chariot of fire), and even Jesus Christ Himself.

David (future King) is pursued by Saul (current King) for 22 years while David waited to be crowned.  His life was in constant peril; Saul wanted him dead.  You bet David felt alone.  Joseph was left in a pit by his own brothers, and later abandoned in a jail. HE sure felt alone. Jesus Christ called out from the cross in Matthew 27:46: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

And then there’s Elijah.  Elijah, feeling pumped after tremendous victories of God over those who worshipped Baal, got a death sentence pronounced over him by Queen Jezebel.  As quickly as his enthusiasm shot up, it crashed, and he took off for the desert to hide.  Just like that, he was done.  No more.  Nope.  Alone.

But was Elijah alone?  Of course not!  God never left; it’s just that Elijah forgot to listen for him.  1 Kings 19:12 says that God spoke to him “in a gentle whisper”.  Well, yeah, gentle whispers are easy to miss, but they are there nonetheless.  The punchline of this story is that even though Elijah forgot God, God had never forgotten Elijah.

Making this personal, I want to encourage you and give you a glass of cool water for your soul, especially if it is in anguish over any number of reasons.  I say to you today, “You are not alone”.  The Bible says in multiple places that Jesus will never leave you or forsake (fail, leave, abandon) you.  God Himself says it in Joshua 1:5.

I’m going to quote and close with 3 passages that really drive home this Word of hope:

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)

“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” (Zechariah 4:6)

“And surely I (Jesus) am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

Feeling overwhelmed by XXXXXXXX (you fill in the blank)?  Lift up your head and see your Savior standing right next to you.  Call on him to save you with his love and grace.  And listen for him; it may be from that still small voice.  Big problems or small, God will always be there for you.