I opened the door to my hotel room, heaved a sigh, and thought to myself: "All hotel rooms look alike." Immediately, the correction came to mind: "No, they don't. You've stayed in a wide range of hotel rooms."

That second thought, of course, was correct. I've stayed in some very nice hotel rooms. I've stayed in some that were a bit frightening. I've stayed in filthy hotel rooms; I've stayed in luxurious ones. I've had entire suites to myself; I've stayed in rooms that would have been dwarfed by my dogs' house.

So why had I thought they all look alike? It didn't take long for the answer to come to me: a hotel room is just space. It can have a couch and a television and a bed and a desk… and still feel completely bare. When I'm by myself, a hotel room feels empty, no matter how elegant it is.

Humans were made for relationships. When God created the world, He saw that the whole creation was good. Until He noted one thing: "It is not good that the man should be alone" (Genesis 2:18). What was the first thing that was out of place in creation? Loneliness.

We were made to be in relationship with one another. We were made to be in relationship with God. In fact, God's plan is that we be adopted into His family. The first chapter of John says, speaking of Jesus, "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12–13).

The apostle Paul wrote, "You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ" (Galatians 3:26–27). Jesus opened the door for us to become children of God, to have a permanent relationship with our Creator.

The apostle John saw that as something to be celebrated: "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1).

We were made to be in relationship with God.
In this world, we can sometimes feel alone. But we never have to actually be alone. We have a loving God who wants to be our heavenly Father, who wants to make us His children. He wants to make it so that we are never alone.

Find out more. Visit our www.hopeforlife.org website or send me a message at tarcher@heraldoftruth.org.

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