I'm all alone!

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"          "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Both those statements were made by the same person!  When Jesus was hanging on the cross, the Father had not forsaken him.  It just felt like it!  This was Jesus at his most human.  He might have reasoned like us:  "What did I do to deserve this?  I have loved you, served you, obeyed you - and now I am hanging on a cross, dying.  I am being executed as a criminal, punished for crimes I didn't commit.  Where is the justice?  God, where are you?  Why are you letting me go through this?  Why aren't you saving me?  Why aren't you stopping this pain?  Why, God, why?" Jesus knew why.  He had spoken about His death many times.  He had spoken of "This hour" before it came.  He had said that it was for this reason that the Son of Man came.  He knew exactly why He had to suffer. But I think that in the moment of intense pain and suffering He asked a question that He knew the answer to - but was experiencing deepest human despair.  He had known it would be bad - but he had never experienced quite this degree of pain and aloneness!  Maybe in that question He was just voicing His very humanness? And God the Father understood. And God the Father wept. God said, "It's alright, Son, for you to say that.  I understand that it is said in the midst of incredible pain and suffering.  I am here, I have not forsaken you!  But I get why you feel like I have.  It's OK.  I understand.  I hate to see you suffering!!!  If I could stop it right now, I would.  But my LOVE compels me to leave you there, in pain.  Love has never cost me so much as right now.  Love has never hurt this bad.  I love the world so much that I have to leave you there, in pain, in anguish, alone and crying out to me to save you. This will end, I promise you.  But right now, I hate that I love so much!" When Jesus looks at our suffering, He gets it.  He gets that we can feel forsaken, abandoned.  When we ask, "What did I do to deserve this?" there is no answer.  "Nothing.  You did nothing to deserve this.  In fact, you have tried to do everything right.  Obey me.  Serve me.  Do all the right things.  And this is what you get.  You're right, it's not fair.  I agree with you!  You're asking why, just like I did.  I didn't get an answer, and you probably won't either.  There is no answer.       "You ask why I have left you, abandoned you.  I know it feels like it, because everything keeps going wrong.  Nothing is going right.  The suffering continues.  You figure that if I was there, everything would get fixed, right?  Wrong. I AM there - and yes, everything is going wrong.  And it isn't over yet.  And I am there.  Right there with you.  Just as my Father was there with me, but I couldn't see Him.  I will NEVER leave you, nor forsake.  And yes, it may get worse yet.  And yes, I am there. And I understand your tears and your anger.  Believe me, I understand.  I've been there.  And it sucks.        "I love you SO much!"