“Absence”
SCRIPTURE
Jesus said to his disciples, “I must tell you the truth. It is for your own good that I am going, because unless I go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I do go, I will send him to you. I shall ask the Father and he will give you the Spirit to be with you forever. The Spirit of Truth, whom the world can never receive since it neither sees not knows him. But you know him because he is with you. He is in you.” —John 16:7-15
DEVOTIONAL
In the congregational read, “Following Jesus,” Henri Nouwen writes,
Sometimes a person can grow closer to us not only in her or his presence but also in her or his absence. We grow closer to one another not just by presence but also by absence, not only by coming but also by leaving and returning…I grew up in Holland, and when I moved to the United States, I had to leave my parents, but that absence made me come in touch with them in a new way. We felt a new intimacy, a new communion. It was as if I couldn’t see them when I was with them but needed some distance to recognize how much they loved me. Only by being away from them was I able to see their love clearly and profoundly. When I was home with them in the kitchen or the living room, it all seemed so ordinary, but when I took a step away, I saw something and felt something I hadn’t seen or felt before I left. My relationship with them deepened through absence.1
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- In your life, how has absence created a new sense of intimacy with God?
- How has it allowed you to grow closer with other people?
- When Jesus says, “I will be with you always,” how do you understand that promise?
PRAYER
Lord, ordain the emptiness left when we part from others to be the space where our love can be sanctified, nurtured, and deepened. Saturate us with that love so that we might share it with those among us here and now. Amen.
1 Nouwen, Henri. Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety. (New York: Image, 2024), 117-118.
The daily devotionals for the season of Lent are written by Rev. Dr. Kirk Hall, Associate Pastor of Formation at First Presbyterian Church from 2010-2013. He is currently a founding partner at The Metis Project, LLC. and lives with his wife and two girls in Salisbury, Connecticut.