DON’T GO IT ALONE

Friday – June 17, 2022

Posted

“I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone.” – Numbers 11:17

In February 2022, the mummified body of a 70-year-old woman thought to have been dead for more than two years was found in Italy, sparking national calls to do more to deal with loneliness among the elderly. Marinella Beretta was discovered by police and firefighters sitting at a table in her home in Prestino, near Lake Como, reportedly after her neighbors raised the alarm about unsafe trees on her property during high winds. She is believed to have had no living relatives, and neighbors were convinced she had moved at the start of the pandemic, having not seen her since September 2019, according to Italian media.

“We must become her family and participate as far as possible in the funeral,” local mayor Mario Landriscina was quoted as saying by the Corriere della Sera newspaper, which carried Ms. Beretta’s story on its front page. The newspaper - Italy’s most widely-read daily - described her as “loneliness personified”, while lamenting the “reduced” modern family structure in which people not only die alone but live alone, “which is almost worse”.

The Lord never designed us to live life alone. We need the fellowship of the Lord and the love and comfort of friends and family. Today in prayer, thank the Lord that He is closer than a friend, and seek to draw closer to family members or friends you haven’t talked to recently.

“The soul hardly ever realizes it, but whether [we are] a believer or not, [our] loneliness is really a homesickness for God.” – Hubert Van Zeller

God’s Word: “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.” – Psalm 25:16