“I’ll always love you” is something I often tell my son. He’s only three years old, but I want him to know that no matter what he does I will always love him unconditionally. Nothing will separate him from my love for him.
And God has the same unconditional love for us.
Paul tells the believers in the city of Rome that they will go through tough times writing, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:35, NASB). The implied answer is “no, nothing will separate us from Christ’s love!” Paul tells us about seven things that we will experience: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and threat of a sword. But those things won’t separate us from God’s love.
Paul continues and gives us the assurance we need a few verses later, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39).
In these two verses Paul lists ten things that cannot separate us from God’s love. Whether it be death, life, angels, principalities (which are demons), fears for today, worrying about tomorrow, the powers of hell, the sky above, the earth below, or all creation, nothing can sever us from God’s love.
(I’ve always loved Max Lucado’s book on Romans titled, In the Grip of Grace: He Will Love You Forever; it’s a great description of Paul’s letter to the Romans and a book I recommend you read.)
In Franklin Graham’s autobiography, Rebel with a Cause, he reveals his crazy lifestyle as a young man smoking and drinking lots of whiskey. In an article with the Citizen Times Franklin Graham reflected on his rebellious years and talked about his relationship with his father, Billy Graham. “I remember my father saying, ‘Franklin, your mother and I love you very much, and we want you to know that no matter what you do in life, no matter where you go, our home will always be your home.’”
We too should be assured that our Father’s home will always be our home. No matter where we go or what we do, He’ll always be ready to welcome us home because He loves us unconditionally.