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Nothing

              For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 8:38-39)

Years ago, I believed there was an exception to this passage. Death, life, angels, demons, present, future, powers, height, depth, nor anything else in all creation could separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, but I could separate myself. I know there are people who would say I was correct, but I’m not so sure anymore. Yes, I know that our sin can come between us and God, but remember the father in the story of the prodigal son? The love was still there, even if the prodigal walked away.

            It would be nice to say that’s not an issue as we look at this “Comfort Food” passage. Unfortunately, it is an issue, because it is at the heart of one of the enemy’s attacks. The questions of where God was when something bad happened, or how a good God could let the bad thing happen, or of our guilt as we’re sure we’ve gone too far, and God can never forgive this. And what we need to know to strengthen ourselves (com - with, fort – strength) is that those bad things don’t separate us from the love of God.

            But we need to take it further. This passage isn’t just about comfort, it’s also about resilience and counterattack. If we know as a point of reality and not just of theology that nothing can separate us from the love of God, then we can rest assured that we are cared for. And when we are assured that we are cared for by someone who has the capacity to care for us – someone strong, wise, and caring enough – specifically of us, then we can and should experience joy even in the midst of bad things.

            What comes to mind here is Superman, either the old tv show where bad guys are shooting at him or in the second Christopher Reeve movie where three Kryptonians and Superman punch and kick each other all over the place. How stupid are they all? Don’t they get that Superman (and all other Kryptonians) can’t be hurt – no matter how hard they try? We’re like Superman. It’s not that we can’t be harmed, but that we can’t be separated from God’s love. If we really believed that, we could laugh when bad things happen to us. We could have joy.  That might cause all those people and things that seek to separate us from God’s love to work harder, but that only gives us reason to laugh harder. Eventually, they’ll go away until we let down our guard.

            I’m not saying that we should laugh when bad things happen or that there’s something wrong with us if we feel physical or emotional distress. I’m just saying that the distress can’t separate us from God’s love, so we can be joyful.

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