"My days are so busy with lawyers, people stopping by, letters to write ... and I’m so lonely through it all," writes a woman who has just lost her husband.

After the death of her husband, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria said, "There is no one left to call me Victoria." Even though she was a queen, she knew what it meant to be lonely. Loneliness is no respecter of persons.

Loneliness plagues us in many ways. There is the loneliness of failure. No one jumps onto a sinking ship to keep the captain company as he goes down. There can even be a loneliness of success. Having accomplished something noteworthy, you are reluctant to talk about it because people will think you are bragging. There is the loneliness of standing up for what you believe is right and finding that you are only a majority of one. There is the extreme loneliness of not feeling loved. Everyone seems to have friends but you, and you would guess that even your death would not cause anyone to break stride.

Confronting all of these feelings of loneliness is the shrill cry of the Newborn from Bethlehem. And as we listen to the God-Babe now born, we discover that he is the Father’s cure for loneliness. Christ is the answer to loneliness. A simple answer to a complex problem? Yes, but no less an answer. Christ is the answer to our every baffling perplexity. In him is found a balm for bereavement, a healing for hurts, a sufficiency for our insufficiency, and the answer for loneliness.

Now there will always be times in our lives when we will be alone, but we need not be lonely. There is a difference. Christ can be the difference when we welcome him not only as our Savior but also as our companion and our friend. Alone but not lonely is the Christian’s possibility. It is God’s gift to us. Talk with the Lord throughout the day, for he is with us wherever we are and whatever the circumstances.