Dear friends, 

With all that’s going on in our world these days, particularly with the Virus, we hear that we should maintain our distance from others to prevent its spread. That is good and wise advice to follow for the most part in this situation, but separation hurts.  Some of us - particularly those who live alone, hunger for the touch, the nearness and support of our loved ones.  

Today, I’d like to ask us all to think of that word - separation - in terms of the separation that Christ must have felt when He bore our sins on the cross.  Do you think He felt the loneliness we do when we lose that closeness with the ones we love the most? 

Here’s a poem that may help us to look at what God (The Father and the Son) suffered for us on that day. 

Separation 

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” 

The cry was heard from Calvary's tree. 

And as the cry rang out from Calvary's knoll, 

it was heard in heaven  

and broke the heart 

of the one that loved that pain wracked soul. 

When that cry rang out, oh the pain it brought 

to the Father who loved the Son he begot. 

But He could have stopped it. 

He could have released  

His Son from the suffering, 

– the pain could have ceased.  

He could have held that soul in His arms 

protecting Him from this terrible harm. 

It could have been that Christ felt Him there 

easing the burden, the sins he would bear. 

But the answer was "no" –  

release wouldn't pay, the price was still due - 

the price for salvation for me and for you. 

The only price that could save the lost  

was the separation of God on the cross 

from God in His heaven - the Father and Son 

to be torn from each other - a tearing of one. 

That day on the earth, the darkness that reigned, 

came not from the soldiers, came not from the pain. 

It came from God's heart tearing in two 

hurting much more than any could do. 

Loving so much, that it broke His own heart, 

The Son on the cross and the Father apart. 

Separation, 

The price that was due 

as God hung on the cross 

paying ransom for you. 

Diane Gruchow 

Revised Feb 2020