Hello Strangers, 

As I was doing the daily devotional for Good Friday, the closing statement said that Jesus’ death on the cross meant that we could never be separated from God’s love, and asked readers to reflect on that before finishing and going on with their day.

In my mind, I couldn’t visualize what that meant. He has always been with me from the time I was a child and came to know him, but what specifically does that look like? All I could see in the present was a blurry haze, so I thought back instead to what that has meant for me in the past. 

There was a time when I was struggling not just with sin, but with crippling guilt and shame over something I’d done. I couldn’t bring myself to tell anyone about it, so it stayed inside of me, festering, for years. I had panic attacks, developed really strange, awful tics, had nightmares, and grappled with my faith in a way I didn’t know was possible. I thought God had left me. Though this ordeal lasted over three years, it was about the first six months that I cried myself to sleep every night. I begged God not to leave me. I begged for forgiveness. I begged that any harm I’d done to others could be undone or healed from. I remember sobbing, “Stay.” 

Well at the end of that six months, I felt myself changed. I was exhausted. Drained. I was unhappy and sick. But I was also a fundamentally different person than I had been before, and that was the beginning of a blessing. 

As more time passed, I gained some distance from myself, and some clarity on what had actually been happening. I felt some calm and peace, though the storm was far from over. Every night that I’d hysterically cried out to Jesus, whether in anguish or terror, He’d been there. When I think back now, I imagine him sitting patiently in an armchair, listening to everything I said. As though I were gripping his arm as I asked him if He was there at all. It was a comfort. When the devotional said that nothing could separate us from God’s love, it was referring to Romans 8:38-39 which says, 38 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 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.”  What I realized because of that time was that no matter what a person has done, if they’ve allowed Jesus to save them from their sins and trusted in Him as their savior, He saves them. And then He stays. And He continues to love them. He’s not leaving, and that’s final, and it’s fact. 

When Jesus died on the cross, a veil in the Holy temple was torn. (Matthew 27:51) Now it’s called a veil, but it was four inches thick, very long and very wide, and it symbolized our separation from God because of sin. When Jesus died, it tore in half from top to bottom with no human interference; God took away the separation. The significance of that is this: Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. No matter what you’ve done, no matter any failings, or pain, guilt, or shame, God is available to everyone. Many people think that Christians believe they’re better than everyone else and that their group is an exclusive club. Some Christians do feel that way, unfortunately, but God has made himself available to everyone. All they must do is ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins, and then turn from them. If they call on Him, He’ll heal them. 

After Jesus died, he rose again. Without that detail, none of the others matter. In that moment He defeated sin and death, and made life available to every person. If you’re interested in learning more about Jesus but don’t know where to start, I’d recommend any of the Gospels. My personal favorite is John. 

This world seems every day like it’s getting darker and darker. This Easter, I invite you to take up an eternal hope and light. Jesus loves you. Find Him. 

All love,

–Mabel