With: Gospel Truth When Separation Feels Sharp
/Most of the pains we experience are separation pains at their core: the loss of a loved one, a severed or damaged relationship, being misunderstood or unheard, the feeling of being different from others, the yearning for a child or spouse, the betrayal of a friend, divisive words, the loss of a church home. I think this is part of why this year has sliced so deeply into our souls. Separation is sharp.
I’ve often said that the shortest way I know to tell the Big Story of the Bible is with the word WITH. In the beginning, God created man to be with him. Then God created man to be with woman. In the garden, there was no sin, no shame, no separation—only wonderful with-ness! How lovely it must have been. But when Adam and Eve chose their wills over God’s, devastation occurred: with-ness was broken. Adam and Even found themselves tangled up in horrors they’d never before seen: sin and shame—things that a holy God cannot be with—and the knowledge of these things fused into their DNA. When they sinned, humanity was separated from God forever, with wonderful with-ness only a memory.
And though part of Adam and Eve and their descendants desired that with-ness be restored, a bigger part of them always pursued the things that separate: the sinful things, the shameful things. No matter how hard they tried (and sometimes they didn’t try at all), separation loomed. With-ness seemed… hopeless.
Can you imagine the violent shift Adam and Eve experienced from the glorious with-ness of the garden to their sin-provoked banishment? Their lineage is our inheritance, and it’s filled with men and women, ourselves included, who wield sin recklessly, who sever togetherness while deep down desiring to find our way back to the garden.
But we could never find our way back. Sin entangles us too tightly. Even in our best moments, we find ourselves hopelessly not enough—unable to repair what has been severed. This is the eternal pain of man: We cannot make our way back to “with.” How sharply we feel this right now.
And so God intervened.
He wrapped himself in flesh, stooping low to bridge the chasm. His name is Emmanuel, God WITH us. He came as a vulnerable child, living under human limitations yet refusing to give into his human will. He endured a criminal’s death and hung on a cursed tree. He cried out, “Father, why have you forsaken me?” and at the desperate tone, we understood the worst part wasn’t the nails—he was separated from God. He endured it so that we could be spared it.
Through his death, resurrection, and ascension, we caught a glimpse of a glittering thing: the path back to with-ness. His death made way for us to be forgiven; his resurrection made a way for us to have life; his ascension made way for the Helper (the Holy Spirit) to come dwell in us. This is the beautiful truth of this very moment, Jesus Follower: God is WITH you. Strive to remember this every day, because it is true and it transforms. What shape would your life take if you really knew God was with you?
And on the days that you know it in your mind but not in your heart, on the days when separation’s blade is particularly sharp, place your hope here: You have a God who invented with-ness, embodied with-ness, who himself suffered separation, who sees your pain, who sent his Spirit so you are not alone, and who has promised that one day, there will be no more barriers to togetherness. One day, all will be restored and made more. One day.
