And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 NLT
Nothing? Never? Even when I lay on my bathroom floor drunk, high, and throwing up on myself? Or when I was homeless and shacked up with a stranger just to have a place to sleep? When I lied, cheated, and stole? What about in my darkest, lowest, most disgusting hour? Was I loved then?
Every single one of us can add to this dark moment list. In the eyes of man, some are more forgivable than others. They may be moments we've overlooked, understated, or rationalized for fear of facing reality. However, when you look at it long enough, deep in your heart you know just how dark that hour was. So maybe you spend the rest of your life holding this moment over yourself, allowing it to define who your are, punishing, blaming, resenting and depriving yourself or someone else. Or maybe you obsess over it and live in your own prison of condemnation. You start to believe on some level that you are not worthy of love. Some may strive to make up for those moments, believing that you will never break even.
But then you receive a letter from the One who sees you....all of you and it says that you were never alone, and that there was never a moment that you were not loved, especially in your darkest hour. It is a love that requires nothing of you. How scandalous! A love that is unearned? An all knowing love? A love that separates who you are from your past and from what you do?
There is nothing that you can do to win His love. You can give up all of your money to feed the poor, go to church 7 days a week, pray and read your bible 5 hours a day, and be perfect and blameless for the rest of your life. Performance will not make you more loved than if you just sat there and did nothing. Why? Because nothing, not the absence of works, not your eating disorder, your addiction, what you did last night, what you will do tomorrow, the abuse you endured, NOTHING can separate you from this extravagant and scandalous love.
What would happen to us if we accepted this love? How can we wrap our heads around such an anomaly? How can we let it in? Today, we can choose to believe without understanding. We can allow ourselves to be captivated with this love. Then and only then, will we see who we truly are, sons and daughters of the one true King.
