If you're facing a separation or divorce that you don't really want, you may be feeling very far from everything that's happy and good. You may even be thinking that if the Apostle Paul had known about you, he could never have written so confidently, "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. 8:38, 39.
Spouses—they must be the one exception to Paul's statement, right? Wrong. Even an unwanted divorce can't keep you from feeling the love of God. You may say, If nothing can separate me from the love of God, why do I feel so separated? The New International Version of the Bible translates the closing words of Paul's passage, "nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God . . . ." That about covers the whole ground. Basically there's only one thing left that could make us feel bereft of God's love. That one thing is our own thinking. If this sounds hard to hear, bear with me.
The fact is that none of us can actually be separate from God, because He never loses sight of us. Only the suggestion that there's a power besides God could make us feel separate. This suggestion tempts us to turn away from God, and makes us feel very cut off from Him. And we can't hear Him if we're not listening to Him. So Paul's statement is true. Nothing in all of creation can separate us from God's tender, constant love for us. And we don't have to think in a way that makes us feel separate.
