The Need for Companionship

“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.” (Ec 4:9-10 AV)

 When reading this, my mind went quickly to how blessed I am with friends and a wife.  There is something more profound in the details which need to be considered.  The Spirit illumined to me the plural pronoun ‘they’ as referenced to their good reward and their fall.  The Spirit specifically noted it was not one or the other that fell.  They both fell.  Then the Spirit noted that when they both fell, the one would lift up his fellow.  How is that possible?  If they both fell, wouldn’t they need a third party to lift them up?  Herein lies the precious point of this passage.  And with the blessing, comes a warning.  The warning is against isolation.

Obviously, my mind gravitates toward my wife.  Through the years, we have had our share of hard times.  Times when we were at our lowest.  Some of our own making.  Others,  not so much.  The examples are too few to relate them all, but there are a few that stick out.  There was the time when our firstborn’s blood tests suggested a serious situation of which the PA never told us what she was thinking.  Instead, she sent us to the sixth floor of our regional hospital.  The sixth floor was the pediatric cancer center.  We didn’t know anything until those elevator doors opened and we saw the sign on the wall.  There were times when it was hard to make ends meet or the time when I was out of work.  There were the many times of heartache in ministry or attacks from the adversary which we had to endure.  Recently, the experiences of getting older and facing potentially serious medical issues can cause us both to fall.  I remember laying in bed and we had such a trial.  I was down about it.  She was up about it.  Then, she started to get down about it.  We joked a bit as we wondered whose turn it was to be down and who was supposed to be up.  If two fall in a pit, one can be the counter-balance while the other ascends.  I know that some of my trials of life would have come no matter my marital status.  I cannot imagine doing life without my wife at my side.  I would not have made it.  It is the mutual support and dependence which grows us closer.  We realize the LORD has given us to one another so that when we fall together, we can work as a team and help one another ascend to victory.

We need human companionship whether we think so or not.  Most are called to marry.  Some are not.  Even the married still need friends outside their marital relationship.  The sad thing about our digital age is we think an electronic relationship can be as deep as an in-person one.  This is simply not true.  People need people.  We are social at heart.  What we are seeing in the last four months or so is the Adversary’s attempt to segregate the human race so that relationships do not become very deep.  Why you might ask?  Because the deeper our relationships, the more apt we are to help when someone needs our help.  If everyone is in their own private little cubical, then we cannot truly empathize with the struggles of another.  What is the point of all this?  We need one another.  We need to be needed.  People cannot survive as an island unto themselves.  The hermit’s life is a miserable one.