For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. My favorite Bible verse! It says that God’s love is the fundamental reality that undergirds everything else. Nothing we have done, nothing done to us, no trouble or difficulty in the world, no family trouble or financial woe, no health concern or grief endured has more power than the love God has for us. And that the love God has for us is “in Christ” tells us something important as well: God’s love comes to us as human beings. The fact that Jesus chose to share a human life tells us that simply being a human being makes us fit for the reception of God’s loving grace. We are not angels with singular purity and awe. We are not merely animals which have the single minded goal of survival and progeny. Human beings are complex, a mix of the spiritual and the animal who look beyond mere existence and instead ask questions about the meaning of things, seeking to know “what’s it all about.” And it is to us, in all our complexity, that God pledges unconditional love. In the book and movie The Color Purple Celie realizes that she has gotten things backward. She had spent her life trying to love God in a worthy manner. She first needed to experience God’s love for her (by noticing how wonderful a God is who made the color purple in a field) in order to be able to love God in return. Jesus didn’t feel the five thousand (men, not counting women and children!) because they deserved it but out of love and compassion. In prayer today, let’s put aside all our efforts and striving, all our fears and worries, and just let God love us.
