“I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, or any other thing that is created.” - Romans 8:38-39
Not COVID.
That’s right friends, nothing. Nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord. Not even COVID.
One of the most tangible expressions of God’s love for me has been community. What better way to see the fruits of the Spirit among us than lived out between people we love? In times when I am hurting, I yearn for the connection of another. When I receive good news or experience joy, I want to share that feeling with a friend. It’s quite natural for me that the primary means of grace from God is though Communion, the sharing of a meal in community, in line with the history of meals Jesus shared with his followers.
Perhaps that’s why this time of physical distance is so difficult for us. We were built to be in community. We were created to be together in love. And COVID seems to demand: NOPE!
Or at least, that’s the perception. But isn’t that also the perception of death? Death, the ultimate separator... The thing that comes between us that cannot be undone, cannot be put off, cannot be controlled. Yet that’s the first thing Paul mentions in the letter to the Romans.
I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death...
He lists other things, but he starts “not death.” If not death, the final threat to the living, then what? Nothing. NOTHING. Nothing.
Nothing. Not death. Not COVID.
Friends, my prayer for you today is the assurance of God’s love. That through this time of separation, through this time of fear, speculation, and worry, we might be assured that nothing, nothing, nothing can separate us from God’s love, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
May God give you the assurance of love, today and always.
Peace,
Pastor Emily