In a certain sense all life is lonely. Even with sympathetic companionships all about us there is an inner life which each of us lives altogether alone. We must make our own choices and decisions. We must meet our own questions and answer them ourselves. We must fight our own battles, endure our own sorrows, and carry our own burdens. Friendship may be very close and tender, but there is a sanctuary of each life into which even the holiest friendship may never enter. Blessed are they who in loneliness can say, “Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” God’s is the only friendship that can really meet all our soul’s deep needs and cravings.