That's why I cried during Castaway. There was something so heartbreaking about a man lost in isolation - a man who needed community so desperately that he painted a volleyball, named it Wilson, and talked to it like a friend.
Physically, he could survive alone. But not emotionally, not mentally.
Our desire for community was God-given. Back in the beginning, when the world was paradise and its inhabitants vegetarians and one man named Adam lived, God said: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him" (Genesis 2:18 ESV). And He made Eve.
We were made for people, to do life with others, to love and be loved, to laugh together and cry and talk and just be together.
The thing is, our need for community betrays our lack of autonomy. We frequently fool ourselves into believing a vain lie that we are totally self-sufficient creatures - that we don't need anyone, that we have the power to survive on our own.
But our desire for community reminds us that we are needy people. We are dependent creatures. And this need reminds us that we don't just need people; we need God.
He created us for community in His image; we were made to reflect Him as a relational being. Our relationships with people remind us that the God who created me and you and the sunshine and stars and the mountains and laughter and smiles and everything our eyes can take in - everything beautiful - He wants a relationship with us, His people.
That's why I don't want to be alone. I was not made for isolation, for a burlap robe and a hermitage in the wilderness. I was created for community, to reflect my relationship with the greatest Being in the universe in all my interactions with smaller, imperfect, God-created beings in my universe.
People need people. And that ultimately reflects our need for God.
Photo courtesy of Dave B and Flickr Creative Commons.