From the UCC Network - Devotional 9/17 "Trial Seperation

Trial Separation

Excerpt from Romans 8:31-39

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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.”

Reflection by Lillian Daniel

When I was ten, my parents sat me down in our formal living room to explain that my dad would be moving out for a while. “Are you getting a divorce?” I asked. “No,” they said, “This is just a trial separation.”

My ten-year-old emotional barometer had gauged the tension between them. My young ears had heard the arguments. My little heart had beat to the rhythm of their anger. Perhaps a separation might be worth trying. At least it meant our family was trying something.

I worried I would never see my dad, but I ended up seeing him more than ever. He took me to the new James Bond movie and out to eat spaghetti. We had one-on-one conversations we had never had before. For a few months our little family tried the separation and I confess that I liked it.

And then just as suddenly, my dad moved back in, and our deep conversations and spaghetti dinners passed away. The old dynamics swept over our family like an irresistible wave, pulling us into the rip tide of rusty resentments and sorry score-keeping. Living in the same house, we were trying out separation all over again.

I love this scripture because it promises us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. We human beings are always trying out separation, but God is always and consistently practicing connection.

Prayer
Holy Spirit—use our trial separations to teach us how to connect to you and to one another, one day, in this life or the next. Amen.

About the Author Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church, UCC, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Her new book, This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers, co-authored with Martin B. Copenhaver, has just been published.