Day 1076 · Year 3 · The Great Tradition
Julian of Norwich on God in the dark
A medieval mystic walked through plague holding one truth.
Today's passage
Romans 8:38-39
38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
39neither 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.
Berean Standard Bible · public domain
Reflection
Julian of Norwich lived in a city devastated by the Black Death. Out of that darkness she wrote that, in God's hand, 'all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.' That is not optimism. It is theology. Paul says it more directly: nothing — not death, not life, not present, not future — can separate you from the love of God in Christ. Whatever is darkest in your life today, the love of God is wrapped tighter around you than the darkness.
From the great tradition · paraphrased
Julian of Norwich · Medieval · 14th c. · England
Julian of Norwich, writing from a plague-scarred England, held that in God's hand all shall be well — not because the present is easy, but because God is settled in his costly love.
Paraphrase only. Scripture, not any teacher, is the authority.
Think it through
- What ten things does Paul list in verses 38–39, and what cannot they do?
- What is the basis for Paul's confidence?
- Where do you most need to hear that God's love is wrapped tighter around you than the darkness?
A prayer to pray
Name the darkness. Then receive Romans 8:38–39 over it, slowly. Ask God to make it the floor under your day.