One of the most profound consequences we experience from the fall of man is separation: separation between us and God, and between us and each other. Separation is defined as “the act of dividing, or coming apart,” or “the space where a division occurs.”
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden of Eden, the immediate result was their separateness from Him. In their shame, they hid, because that is what sin does. It not only creates space between us and God, but it also creates the DESIRE in us to be apart from Him, the desire to hide.
As God walked through the garden in the cool of the day, He called to them with a question He had never asked before, “Where are you?” And He already knew the answer, but with the question came the realization for Adam and Eve of their lostness. With the question came the knowledge of the space that had been created between them and their God.
Their separation from God was solidified by their banishment from the garden, the flaming swords set as permanent reminders that they could never go back. They, who had only known constant and perfect togetherness with God, a pure and unbroken harmony with their Creator, experienced for the first time the rift that would echo through the ages, and affects us still today.
We have all felt this sting of separation before, when a beloved friend moved away, when a spouse left, when a wayward child quit speaking to us. But we experience it most acutely when we are faced with the death of someone we love. In those moments, we flinch and pray and wonder, while something inside of us tells us that it is not supposed to be this way. The space that was once filled by the presence of another, a cherished and loved other, is now occupied only by their absence.
None of us can escape it. If this fact alone were the only story we had to tell, it would cause us to despair.
But Jesus spoke of the curse of separation and was all too familiar with it. In the book of John, He told his disciples, “If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.” Jesus knew the time of His death was approaching, and knew that when He died, the disciples would need a promise to hold on to, some bit of hope that they would be with Him again. He knew they would need some weapon to combat the acute sense of isolation and loneliness they would feel in the space of time between His death and His resurrection, in the space of His absence.
We see Jesus going to the tomb of Lazarus as Mary and Martha mourn for their brother. “If you had only come,” they cried to Jesus. And the Savior weeps with them and for them as they grieve for the brother who is no longer there.
And we hear Jesus on the cross as He says to the thief beside Him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
The whole Bible is a collection of stories of the God who wants to be with us, who made a way for us to come and who grieves with us over the curse of separation. And even though we are the ones who created it, He is the one who entered into it to bring us back to Himself. And He bids us even now to come.
And we know that one day He will make all things right, all things new, and once and for all do away with any semblance of separation. One day, we will be forever in His presence, forever with Him, and forever with those we love that are in Him. There will be no more separation. No more of the sting of absence. No more will death have its way. The great mercy of our God will overcome merciless death and separation.
“But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” -Ephesians 2:13