Not meant for goodbye

Something woke me up

In the midst of

Dream and fantasy

Halfway there

But He always fills my cup

And He lifts me up

Oh how He lifts me up!

Goodbye

Goodbye

Walk away

It’s time to say

Goodbye

– Plankeye, Goodbye

And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.

– Acts 20:36-38 (ESV)

Thus did the Apostle Paul bid farewell to the elders at Ephesus.

How many times in our lives has a similar scene played out? There is something unnatural and wrenching about goodbye. We fret about how to say the word, what to do “when it comes down to the end”. Goodbyes are uncomfortable and awkward. They involve a letting go of something we care about. Letting go is also unnatural for us humans.

Why is it this way? I wonder. I was talking about this tonight with my friend Brad, who is moving to Seattle in three days. I believe that the word “goodbye” was invented at Genesis 3:7. In other words, “goodbye” is a product of the fall, a curse of our fallen nature.

We were not meant for goodbye. But when we fell we died, and every goodbye is, in a sense, another memory of that separation from what we were meant to be, another reminder of the marring of the wholeness we were created for.

But among Christian brothers and sisters every goodbye is temporal, and our separation a mere nanosecond when logged against the annals and eons of eternity. We will see someday that we were never truly separated.

And one day we will laugh with joy together in the presence of our King

. . . and we will never say goodbye again.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

– Revelation 21:1-4 (ESV)

4 thoughts on “Not meant for goodbye

  1. Like most of words that we use when parting with friends, goodbye is a shortened version of an earlier blessing, an adaptation of 16th century ‘god be with you’. Considered in this vein, our “goodbyes” between believers contain an essential connection, a blessing (a prayer if you will) that the same god who is with us will be with them. This binds us together in a beautiful, unbroken chain, regardless where our physical presence may wander.

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