Physical Separation
Erman Southwick was inducted into the Army in 1943 and served in Europe for most of the war. He was sustained during this separation by a lively correspondence with his wife, Flora, at home in Marietta, Ohio. Her words made a moving case that she and Erman were not really separated by the miles between them:
When I get a letter from you I try to make a mental picture of all the things you tell me and then knowing you as I do I work out just how you reacted to what you said and the expression on your face. It makes me feel so close to you and through every line of your letters is the assurance over and over again of your love and that gives me a safe warm feeling inside. You see, darling, I just love you so much, I don’t really recognize any separation from you. They can separate us physically and that is pretty hard to take sometimes but when there is complete emotional and intellectual unity between two people to really separate them is impossible.325
This couple demonstrates the biblical model of marriage: “So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate”(Matthew 19:6). Even though separated by time and distance, they remained united in spirit. The marriage relationship is intended to be an everlasting bond between a man and a woman reflecting the depth of our relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ. With the words “complete emotional and intellectual unity” this young woman perfectly captures the essence of that higher unity promised by the apostle Paul. In one of the most moving passages of Scripture, we receive a vision of the spiritual unity in Jesus Christ that will prevail through every hardship:
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither 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.
—Romans 8:38–39