Many years ago God gave my wife and me a wonderful anniversary gift. Our younger daughter had been selected for the Miss University contest. She was only sixteen, the youngest among a group of eighteen, nineteen and twenty one year olds. There had been two thousand applicants, narrowed down to two hundred, and now eighteen stood on stage, with TV cameras and spotlight on them. “Tell us about yourselves,” said one of the judges into the mike, and I watched as the beautiful models walked down the ramp then turned to the MC, and said their bit.
My wife held my arm as my little one walked to the mike, “What I would like to share with you today,” she said, “Is that throughout my years in school and now in college I have felt the presence of a God who has walked with me every moment, every day..!
The tears ran into my beard, and I lifted my eyes and thanked God for never ever leaving my sixteen year old alone. She won that round and the next one too, and finally stood in front of the judges for the final three. She didn’t make it. It didn’t matter to me; as far as I was concerned she had told the camera and audience who it was that kept her company day and night.
I remember once years ago, I had gone to hear a gentleman speak. He was not the best looking of speakers; slightly disheveled, with coat not matching pants and pen and paper sticking out of pocket, ready to fall. I wondered whether I had wasted my time coming to hear his talk.
And then he stood in front of mike, and from his throat came the most awful attempt to sing, I was going to laugh when I heard the words;
“No, never alone,” he sang, “no never alone.”
He’s promised never to leave me,
Never to leave me alone..!
I believed him. For from his face there flowed a radiance that was divine. His voice made very one squirm, but his words made every person in the audience misty eyed. I looked around, either there were people nodding their heads and agreeing with the singer or others with tears longing to have the companionship the man sang about. A friendship that made him unafraid to sing in front of people with pitch less voice..!
A friendship that gave my daughter the courage to walk the Miss University ramp and stand tall and confident and oh yes, beautiful!
What aloneness are you facing?
The loneliness of being just another face in a crowd?
Whatever your loneliness, sing with me, the words that pitch-less man sang that day or if you are as tuneless as he, recite them with me:
“No, never alone, no never alone.”
He’s promised never to leave me,
Never to leave me alone..!
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com
