Isaiah 59 is a powerful chapter, a sermon within itself, containing three great points. The first relates to our sinfulness. The first eight verses describe in vivid detail our own internal sinfulness. But your iniquities have separated you from your God. I think separation may be the cruelest word in the English language.
Nothing pulls at our hearts like separation, and there are many different kinds of separation.
Some people are separated by distance. Think of the widowed mother who will spend Christmas alone this year because her children are overseas or in a remote place. Some are separated by death. Nothing brings tears to the eyes of movie-goers like two lovers torn from each other by the cold hand of death. This will be a difficult Christmas for some of you whose loved ones have passed away during the year.