I always love to hear a child’s excitement when they say, “I made a new friend today.”  It’s almost like they were born for that or something… The Facebook generation has brought about friendships of a different variety than what people a few years ago would have called friendship.  These days it is not uncommon for people to have 500 or more friends on Facebook and/or other social media.  I wonder how many of those so called friends would help if you had a flat tire on a rainy night.  I wonder how many would bring a meal after you came home from the hospital.  I wonder how many would listen to the sadness and frustration you have without judgment or an attempt to fix you.  My guess is the number would be far less than your “status” indicates.  I’m not judging you or your friends or social media.  I’m simply saying that real and true friends are in short supply.  In fact, people with a lot of “friends” can be surprisingly lonely.  Some people are even chronically lonely—whether they are married and single.  One of our favorite Christmas verses is in Matthew 1:23, "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" --which means, "God with us."  God with us!  Wow, who could be lonely if God was with him?  It seems like it would be tough to be bored in the presence of an infinite Being of great awe and splendor.  So is God with us or not?  Was that a promise for Joseph and Mary and we are left on our own?  Loneliness is an opportunity for the enemy.  When we are lonely we are vulnerable and Satan’s minions love to “kick us when we are down.”   According to the Scripture, we live in a God-soaked universe.  Our everyday life is dripping with His presence and yet we all suffer from time to time with the feelings of loneliness.  What can we do about this?  The Word has answers for us and this week, this first Sunday of Advent, we’re going to take a look at this question, “If God is with us, why do I feel lonely?”