The Lord has been trying to get me to agree with Him on something for months… or has it been years? I can’t remember.
Anyway, He finally found a way that even I – the woman who could have been a lawyer – can’t argue with.
If you like your life the way it is, I suggest you close your browser.
I’ll wait.
Still here?
Okay…
So the background I can share with you is I am fiercely loyal. If we ever become friends, we will be friends until I die. When I care (caveat), I care deeply… and forever.
Which can be a problem when life separates us.
I moved a lot as a kid, and I still deeply miss and regularly think about my childhood friends. We don’t interact beyond Facebook, and I have no delusions that we would still be the best of friends today if only we lived near one another… But I’m not surprised when the casualties of moving show up in my dreams… weekly. And I still get sad I’m not 9 anymore.
And then there was high school. I had amazing friends back then – the kinds of friendships that only happen in movies. We were inseparable and forever changed for the better for having known one another. I think fondly about one or more of those people every. single. day.
With a background like this, it’s easy for me to feel like separation is never a good idea. It’s easy for me to view it as an evil to be avoided at all costs.
And I’ve been trying to convince God I’m right for quite awhile… He isn’t buying it.
Because He knows that sometimes separation is good.
Did I really just say that? Me? The girl who goes through the 7 stages of grief when her favorite FICTIONAL TV shows are cancelled?
Yes, I can’t keep saying separation is always wrong and bad… because God says otherwise. And no matter how much I Hate with a capital H that this is true, that doesn’t make it any less true…
Why can’t I just be a post-modern who doesn’t believe in truth?
Sigh.
That’s a different post.
For now, would you like to know what finally convinced me I must call some separation good?
No? Close your browser.
I’ll wait.
Still here?
Okay…
Let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, God the Father and God the Son, Jesus, were separated… it happened only once, but it happened nonetheless. There was a boundary, if you will, when Jesus lamented from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). It’s hard to say what exactly happened at that moment, but it’s clear the Father turned away from the Son in some way.
Lean in close…
Since God never does anything that isn’t good, we have to conclude this separation was good.
And if separation can be good for the Father and the Son, even just once, we have to conclude there might come a time when it would be good in our human relationships too.
I know.
I don’t like it either.
Truth be told, it terrifies me.
But it helps me to take notice of a couple things about the Father and the Son’s separation…
- It was temporary. Don’t get me wrong, it was extremely painful. But it didn’t last forever. In fact, it only lasted three days.
- It didn’t change how they felt about each other. Neither the Father nor the Son lost one ounce of affection for each other while they were apart. If they hadn’t already shared the maximum amount of love for one another possible, I’d even say such a separation would have increased their love for one another. Father pride swells when children do right…
- It was for the greater good. The Lord redeemed humanity via that separation. Turns out that break was the only way to restore what always should have been.
- The reunion was sweet. In the story of the prodigal son, the father’s joy is unbounded when he is reunited with his son. And, so, too, I am confident, was the Father’s joy when He got His Boy back.
I imagine these four characteristics can be applied to any separations we experience in our human relationships… I know they all aren’t always going to be true… and even if they were, the hurt will still steal our breath and wet our eyes as we walk in obedience…
But maybe we can ask the Lord for the faith to believe that maybe just one or two of these ideas will be true in our lives? And maybe they can help us be brave when He calls us to separate from people we love?