Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, 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 8:35, 37-39 NRSV)

We most need these words of Paul when we're hurting.  Paul reminds us that the death of a loved one can separate neither us nor those we love from God.  He reminds us that even when we haven't made the right choices, God still loves us; that when the world is beating us down and we feel worthless, God still loves us; that when we're in pain from injury or disease, God still loves us.  And when we remember the love of God as shown us by Jesus then we can conquer all those things that try to defeat us.  And when we see people we don't think are lovable, or who seem to have been defeated by events in their lives, or are just different from us, we need to remember that God loves them just as much as us and nothing we or they do can change that. And by remembering the love that God has for all of us and living that love we can conquer some of the big problems that we face here in Arizona, in our nation, and around the world.

Blessings!
Marilyn