Superglue

Superglue

I have solid faith in superglue. Ever since I first glued my thumb and forefinger together with it in record time, the sticky stuff has been a powerful thing in my mind.

In its resting state, superglue looks a lot like water. Too clear and runny to really cement two opposing bodies together. But somehow when it comes in contact with those opposing bodies, well, ladies and gentlemen, look out.

I don’t take the properties of superglue lightly. I know what the stuff can do. If superglue is in the equation somewhere, chances are very good that something is going to get stuck to something else.

I know even less about the mind of God than I do about chemistry, but here’s something else I’m assured is true: I am stuck to God, and he is stuck to me by a kind of divine superglue. Because of the sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ, and my faith in him, neither one of us is going anywhere. Falling markets can’t break our bond. Electoral outcomes can’t come between us. Sorrow can’t drive a wedge. We’re connected, and we’re not coming apart. What the apostle Paul calls “the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39, NIV) is permanent. Period.

Thumbing through an old hymnal, I found these words by George Matheson that comfort in their certainty and beauty:

O Love that wilt not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe,

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

There’s only one thing strong enough to keep me bonded to God, no matter what I do or what the world does to me. Christ’s own saving, sanctifying love is glue than cannot, and will not, let me go.

I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39, NIV