After my father’s passing, my mother struggled pitifully with loneliness. There was little anyone could do for it. Her rambling mountain house seemed desolate, haunted with memories of a vanished hand and a silenced voice. But she was a sturdy woman with an unusual streak of determination, and as time passed, she began to discover some of the benefits of living alone, such as God’s presence.

She later told me, “I’ve adjusted nicely to the single life, for I’ve never been so sure I’m not alone. The Lord and I talk together all day. When I wake up in the morning, He’s waiting to greet me, and when I go to bed at night, He stays up and stands guard.”

Though she was a lifelong Christian, my mother’s latter years were marked by renewed love for the Scripture, busy ministry to others, a deepened prayer life, and accelerated growth in praise and worship.

Robert J. Morgan, The Red Sea Rules. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001, p. 73.