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It
was hard to see him go that September morning. He was so excited about meeting
new opportunities at the university. We felt like our nest was almost empty.
I remembered
the time I wanted to take my three-year-old son on an afternoon trip for
some father-son bonding. I tried to share with him many particulars of the
surroundings through which we traveled. I felt exhausted. He didn't say
anything. A big truck was now passing us. He said, "Beeg tuck!" That was
all he said that afternoon. We still laugh over that story.
Another time I was trying to teach him to catch the ball.
He always wanted to hold his glove down so it was hard for him to catch
the balls flying over his waist. I encouraged him to hold the glove up,
then backed up and threw the ball. The glove suddenly pointed downward and
the ball hit him square in the eye. He had a real shiner for the next week
or so. Now he throws the baseball further than I can. Many more memories
came to me as he left for the university. He was not really ours anymore...
or was he?
Saying goodbye is always hard. It would be especially
hard if a family member died. That goodbye is so final. A divorce is a strange
goodbye because it kills your self-esteem as well. You wonder what you did
wrong. In that way, a suicide is like a divorce; it kills the soul of a
person.
One of the hardest goodbyes recorded in history is when
Jesus Christ cried out, "My God, why have you forsaken me!" A few minutes
later, He died. But He died a special death. A death in which we may obtain
comfort for when we have to say goodbye to special people and the memories
they give. |
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Max
Lucado says it well: "Airports. Luggage. Embraces. Taillights. Tight throats.
Final waves." "Write me!" "Don't forget to phone."
Question: what kind of God would put people through
such agony? What kind of God would give you friends and families and then
ask you to leave them?
Answer: a God who knows that the deepest love is not
built on passion and romance. A God who knows that we are only pilgrims
and that eternity is so close that any "Goodbye is, in reality, 'See you
tomorrow'."
Really, it is a God who had to say goodbye
to a Son that He dearly loved. That Son had to die to give us the true
comfort we all need. Matthew 11:28 says, "Come to me, all who have heavy
hearts and I will give you rest."
I would encourage you to seek out that comfort by asking
Jesus Christ to come into your life and fill that vacuum, that void. I
have heard of so many individuals who had empty lives. When they asked
Christ to fill their life with His comfort, they suddenly could see brightness.
Darkness was gone. Gloom and despair vanished. Jesus Christ can fill your
void also!
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