Who Is Lonely

“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

I HAVE A PHOTOGRAPH OF ME looking out the window of our second-floor apartment at the snow on the ground. When I look at it, the picture takes me back to that season over thirty years ago. Our older daughter was just a few months old, and we had moved to this city less than a year before. My family was far away, and my husband’s family was very busy. We had not settled into a church home, nor had I found my stride as a brand-new momma. I can hardly bear to look at my face in that photo because I remember the profound loneliness I felt in that apartment. In that season, I felt hidden away and unseen.

After years of praying for young moms, I now know that what I was experiencing was fairly common. My circumstances were unique to me, but intense loneliness is something that so many mothers experience.

Have you experienced your own season of loneliness? It could be that your newborn is premature or sick, or that you don’t have transportation to get to gatherings. Maybe you lack the finances or haven’t yet found your tribe of friends. Perhaps your church home doesn’t have a ministry for your stage of life. Maybe your children have left home or are away at events most evenings. Motherhood is full of seasons of loneliness.

When I feel isolated or alone, it helps me to remember the story of Nathanael, who would become one of Jesus’s disciples. One day his friend Philip showed up and encouraged him to come and meet Jesus. “When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, ‘Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit’” (John 1:47). When Nathanael asked Jesus how He knew him, “Jesus answered, ‘I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.’” Though John doesn’t tell us what Nathanael was doing under that tree, many scholars believe that he regularly went to this private place to pray.

Why is the interaction between Jesus and Nathanael important? Because just like Nathanael, the Lord sees you! He saw Nathanael when he was doing what he likely did every day—praying. The Lord sees you when you do the very things you do every day. He sees you in the most ordinary moments, even the ones that are overlooked by everyone else. Whether loneliness defines this season or is something you’ve been through in the past, the Lord has helpers and answers for you. Let’s pray tonight for the Lord to continue to bring healing to every area of life in which we feel alone.

Tonight we pray for the momma who is lonely. Lord, she is often surrounded by people, whether her children, coworkers, or family, but her heart often feels isolated. She feels unseen, unheard, and unimportant. Lord, she wishes others really saw the hurting places in her heart so she wouldn’t have to carry this alone. She needs to know You see each lonely moment, secret pain, and unseen scar. She needs Your peace and the comfort of Your Presence. Please help her know tonight that she’s never really alone. You are with her even now.

We ask in Jesus’s name, amen.

Jesus, I ask You to fill these places in me and my life that feel unseen, ignored, or underappreciated: