ODJ: alone in the dark

August 27, 2015 

READ: Psalm 139:1-24 

If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there (v.8).

The film Gravity tells the story of Dr. Ryan Stone—a brilliant biomedical engineer on her first space shuttle mission. Her partner for the journey is veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski. During a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalski completely alone, tethered to nothing but each other, and ominously spiralling out into blackness.

The film’s stunning visuals enable us to experience outer space in a realistic but profoundly frightening way. We feel the cold, uninhabited, absolute nothingness of it all. Outer space is inky darkness. No oxygen. No signs of life. And as we watch Gravity, we feel what it’s like to be abandoned, isolated and alone in the dark.

David was a man familiar with feelings of isolation. As a shepherd boy, he was often out in the dark wilderness alone, tending the flock. Later, as a fugitive seeking refuge from his enemies, David experienced abandonment in deep, dark caves (1 Samuel 24:3; 2 Samuel 23:13).

Yet David knew he could never really be alone. God was always with him. He wrote, “I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there” (Psalm 139:7-8). There wasn’t a place where God was absent.

—K.T. Sim

365-day-plan: Luke 19:1-27

MORE
Read the following verses and consider the assurances from God: Deuteronomy 31:6,8; Psalm 37:25; Isaiah 41:10; Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5. 
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Why is it important for you to not linger in loneliness or isolation? What does it mean for you to experience God’s presence?