Separated

(Castlerock beach, with the hills of Donegal in the distance.)

 

Somewhere out in the middle of that stretch of sea is the border which separates the Republic of Ireland from Northern Ireland.

 

Borders usually indicate division, demarcation and separation; a line which cannot easily be crossed.

 

The Bible says that our sins have created a kind of impassable border between ourselves and the God who created us:

 

But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

(Isaiah 59:2)

 

This explains why so few people are totally content and happy with life. We were created in God's image, to have a relationship with Him, but our fallen, sinful nature makes such a relationship impossible.

 

It has been said that we are all born with a "God-shaped hole" - a hole that only God can fill.

 

Since we could not bridge that gulf, or fill that hole, God took action to make it possible...

 

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

(1 John 4:9-10)

Done