divine divorce

I have been thinking lately about the reflections of God in the world. Beauty has been the latest topic. But I also thing that emotions can reflect God. I have been thinking about how I will miss my friends when I graduate. I will miss them because I care about them and they are close to me. There have been many shared experiences and shared conversations. We carried each others burdens and listened to each others stories. I will miss my time with my friends.

So should it be any less with God? I have friends here that have distanced themselves from God and, more specifically, Christ. These people assert that they were Christians at some point in their life. Yet, there is no sense that they miss God. I can understand the struggles and questions of faith. But if there was a real and authentic relationship with Christ, won't there be a overwhelming sense of loss upon detachment?

Even when there is a little distance between me and God, I can feel it. I begin to miss Him. And this happens to me even without a total rejection of who He is and His role in my life. I can't imagine what it would be like to "divorce" Him. This would cause a severe trauma in my life. Not because I am some "saint" by any stretch of the imagination. Its just that my relationship with Him is such that I would miss Him if I left Him.

So many of us grieve when we leave friends. Why is there not grieving when we leave God? Shouldn't that clue us in on the kind of relationship that may have been there before we left? If indeed we were a Christian before we bailed out on God, I can't imagine that we wouldn't miss Him terribly. And maybe this is why people go through with the divine divorce in the first place. Like many divorces, the separation and dislocation happens long before the papers are signed and the furniture is moved.