Reflection

When someone you trusted walks away, it rarely feels clean. It feels like a rupture — not just of the relationship, but of your own reality. It seems as if the ground beneath you shifted without warning, and now you’re left standing in the debris of something that once felt steady, that one seemed so anchored. You try to make sense of it, try to trace the edges of the absence they left behind. You replay moments in your mind, not just to remember, but to find the fracture — the moment they began to let go while you were still holding on, the moment everything changed.

In that space, it’s easy to confuse their absence with God’s. It is easy to believe that if they gave up on you, maybe he did too.

But God’s love isn’t fragile like theirs. His devotion isn’t circumstantial. His presence doesn’t waver. The human beings who left, the ones who ran from you in disappointment, in avoidance, in silence — didn’t carry God with them when they walked away. He stays, even in the aloneness, even in the dark.

You may not have gotten the goodbye you needed. You may never hear the apology your heart still aches for. But closure from others isn’t required for comfort from God. He sees what they couldn’t. He holds what they were unable to value. He remains when they disappear.

And while it’s natural to grieve what was lost, do not let their departure define your story. You are not less loved because they couldn’t stay. You are not abandoned, even if they left. You are still held. You are still chosen. You are still surrounded by a God who doesn’t run when it gets hard. Instead, he walks closer.

Remember — healing doesn’t begin when they come back. It begins when you realize that they were never meant to carry what only God can hold. Their absence may have left you with a heavy heart, but it didn’t leave you alone. God has been with you through every unanswered question, through every quiet ache, through every moment you felt unseen. What they let go of, he never did. What they couldn’t honor, he still carries — gently, and faithfully.

Prayer

God, I’ve felt the ache of absence. I’ve questioned if you were still with me when others walked away. I want to release the belief that their leaving says anything about your love. Heal the places in me that were wounded by abandonment. Remind me that I was never too much, never too broken, never too hard to love. Thank you for being the constant I can rest in,

Amen.