THE REACH OF GOD’S LOVE

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

Paul began with rhetorical questions: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (Romans 8:35). He could have added another: Shall any of those things that make us afraid—or even fear itself—separate us from God’s love? No matter how we might rephrase or recast these questions to reflect our particular circumstances, challenges, troubles, or fears, the answer will always be the same. —No! Nothing will ever separate us from God’s love.

In Jesus, who was, and always is, God with us, the answer is always no; nothing can separate us from His love. This was one of my father’s favorite Bible verses and one of his favorite sermons to preach as a long-serving pastor. It is now inscribed on his grave marker. Whenever we visit there—or whenever anyone else passes by and notices—it reminds us that even in the seeming finality, separation, and silence of death, my father is still not beyond God’s love. It also reminds us that we, in our grief and amid the challenges of our ongoing lives, are also never beyond the reach of that same love. Placing this verse on my father’s grave was an act of faith and hope, a statement that we trust in the truth of Paul’s assertion and the promises God has given us. It was also an act of witness—perhaps someone mourning their loved one might see this brief reminder of God’s love and be encouraged, or perhaps curious.

It is the one thing my father, Paul, and God would want them to know: nothing can separate them from His love.