NO, NOT ONE!
~Lawrence
S. Khawzawl,
Serampore
College, 7th Nov. 2019
That
was that time where I felt lonely and ignored by some of my ‘closed friends’
and searched to console myself in different ways to fill up the emptiness in my
heart. I knew I longed for something, might be the accompaniment of those
‘closed friends’ because we had always been together and now that they were all
gone or were away from me at that period of time.
With
that kind of heart I was, it was in the College Morning Devotion of November 6,
2019, we sang this Congregational Hymn “No, Not One!” from our College Hymn
Book No. 104 which was written by Johnson Oatman Jr. that each of the lines
which filled my empty and lonely heart. I know we had always sang this
particular song in other Morning Devotions, Sunday Worship Services, Weekdays
Intercessory Prayers and Vespers but that had never touched my heart as it was in
that particular Morning Devotion. I could feel all the comforting messages that
the writer is writing in each lines and my heart was filled with joy and
contentment.
As
we started singing,
There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus,
No, not one! No, not one!
None else could heal all our soul's diseases,
No, not one! No, not one!
The
feeling that I had until that morning, where I felt all my closed friends had
ignored me and left me but here is a friend not like anyone else who could even
heal all my soul’s diseases, my loneliness, my feelings of ignored by closed
friends and left alone were all gone.
This
friend is the highest of all friends yet so holy, at the same time he is also meek
and lowly like no other friends.
No
friend like Him is so high and holy,
No,
not one! No, not one!
And
yet no friend is so meek and lowly,
No,
not one! No, not one!
While
my so called ‘closed friends’ which I thought, were leaving me behind and left
me alone and that I felt so far away from them and that makes me sad because
there were no one left around to cheer me up and makes me happy. But here,
Jesus, the true friend is always near me every single hour and even in the
darkest night his love always protected me.
There's not an hour that He is not near us,No, not one! No, not one!No night so dark but His love can cheer us,No, not one! No, not one!Not only that, this true friend Jesus never forsaken anyone like how I felt my closed friends had done to
me. The reasons my closed friends had left me alone might be because of my shortcomings, it might be
because I ignored them first and that they finally left me. But Jesus the true friend is not like that; He
even accepted sinners and never denies anyone to be his friends.
Did ever saint find this Friend forsake him?No, not one! No, not one!Or sinner find that He would not take him?No, not one! No, not one!Our earthly friends even those we called ‘closed friends’ are not for forever. There will always be a time when they have to leave us or be separated. But Jesus the true friend is the gift of God the Father for all humankind to save us from all our sins and that he will never leave us and will take us to heaven to be with him forever, to be his forever friends.Was e'er a gift like the Saviour given?No, not one! No, not one!Will He refuse us a home in heaven?No, not one! No, not one!Now, I finally came to know clearly that though my so called ‘closed friends’ may ignore me and leave me alone, there is Jesus the true friend who is always there besides me even in my loneliness and in my struggles and he will guide me throughout the day because he is such a lowly person that he will deny me to be his friends no matter what kind of person I am.Jesus knows all about our struggles,He will guide till the day is done;There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus,No, not one! No, not one! 
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