When I was a child in my parents’ home, we gathered around a table for every meal. I was part of the younger set that didn’t have a chair. Rather, I shared a long, green, homemade wooden bench without a back. I never questioned my place or my privilege to share that table. That privilege was an expression of love.
There were several, occasional dinner menus that I remember very well. One was a large bowl of mashed potatoes with some toasted bread croutons mixed throughout. We had the option of eating it just as served, or we could add brown sugar and milk. That meal was an expression of love.
We never lacked enough to eat when I was a child. The food supply never seemed low to me. We always left the table with satisfied bellies. That satisfaction was an experience of love.
In the times when the “dinner menu” we are served is not to our choosing, when it does not feel satisfying, or when it actually hurts, how do we think?
Do we really understand how dark days and deep losses shape our understanding of who God is, and how he acts toward people? What proves to us that God is acting toward us with love?
The Scriptures assure us that nothing can separate us from God’s love. I’m encouraged by that today. We are not assured that nothing can separate us from comforts and normalcy. We are assured that no matter the menu, we are still in the gentle grip of his love.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” And “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Read the whole passage here: Romans 8:31-39