Friday, April 8: Lou Bush

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, 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. - Romans 8:28-39

I love the seasons and rhythm in our church life at St Thomas, even during Lent. Why? Not just for the richness and variety of music, flowers, words, and colors, but because the progression helps keep God’s big picture before me, over and over again.

We all have seasons in our own brief lives, and how tempting it is to allow oneself to feel either “stuck” in the difficult ones, or “all settled” in the easier ones! The reassurances of verse 38 suggest an enormous number of potential conditions on earth. I’m thinking that Christians did not have an easy time of it in the first century, and the verses just before this one allude to this.

Nor do Christians always have an easy time of it today. Death, life, angels, rulers, time, the universe ... these are powerful concepts! I am thankful for a quiet time at church in order to try and grasp the message that God’s love for us in Christ Jesus is steadier than all of these. The challenge is to simply accept it, again and again. I think I’ll let those Easter flowers help me.

—Lou Bush