ABIDING PRESENCE

The military man shoved him into the dark cell and locked the door. He stumbled and hit his head on a wall. It was so dark, he couldn't see anything and the pungent smell hanging in the air threatened to make him barf. How long were they going to keep him here?

He slid slowly down to the floor as tears burned his eyes. What would Kike, his newly wedded wife be doing now? He hated that she had to experience his arrest, the way they had  broken into their house and arrested him like a common criminal. 

"See, Mr. Mike. This matter is very simple." His captors had told him. "Stop making noise about this Jesus guy and we will let you go back to your family." 

He had refused of course. How could he deny the One for whom He lived? Consequently, here he was in a prison cell, on an island he could not identify, far away from the rest of the world, maltreated, beaten and locked up.

He knew what they were trying to do. After series of previous threats and arrests, he had refused to back down from sharing God's Word to the people in an underground church. So they decided to lock him up permanently and strip him of one of his fundamental human rights; Communication. 

They knew he needed someone to talk with to keep his sanity. Isolation was an effective method of breaking criminals, and Mike was sure that if he stayed here for more than fifty days, it would break him too. They had planned it so well.

But on what seemed like the second month of his isolation, Mike woke up thinking about a Scripture. "...and lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world." The more he meditated on it, the more He heard the voice behind it. It got to a point he felt the urge to recite the verse over and over. "...and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Slowly, he became aware that someone was in the dark cell with him. A presence so familiar, yet unfamiliar.

"Why do you fear, Mike?"

 The Voice. He had heard it many times before in his heart. Mike stood up and began feeling the air around him, trying to grasp the Presence. "Jesus?"

"You can't touch me with your hands." The Voice said, "But it hurts that you didn't see me. Didn't I say I will never leave you or forsake you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've been here since they threw you in days ago.."

"I-I don't understand." Mike stuttered. He had never felt this close to the God.

"You're never alone Mike. Even in isolation. I am with you ALWAYS."

Mike began to cry. 

"I heard the conversations you've been having with yourself in your head. If you keep doing that, you'll run mad, and that's exactly what they want."

"I didn't have any choice, Lord." Mike said. "I thought I was alone."

"Now you know better." Jesus said. "I am that Friend they can never take away from you. Let's talk."

Dear friend, no matter the kind of dark prison you find yourself in, don't ever forget that your Father and Friend promised, "...and lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world..." Matthew 28:20