I am not a fan of goodbyes. At Annual conference this past week we said goodbye to several of my good friends as they retired. We said goodbye to 14 churches as they left the conference, and one church as it closed its doors forever.
We will soon say goodbye to our graduating seniors, and to our youth director Anthony Perry. Spring is gone, too. (Goodbye spring – we hardly knew you.)
On Memorial Day, my family gathered at the cemetery where we have said goodbye to countless relatives, including my father and grandmother. Then we went to the last home owned by a family member in that small town. My great-grandfather was the first settler child born in that community, and my relatives have filled that town for 160 years. Now the last of us has moved away and the house will soon be for sale. We stopped to say goodbye one last time to a home that is filled with so many memories for me. I am not a fan of goodbyes.
Fortunately, there is one goodbye we never have to say – goodbye to the Lord. Churches, graduates, and families change, and we say goodbye too many times. But Jesus never changes. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8). Holding on to that one truth, I face all those goodbyes I don’t want to make.
Peace in Christ,
Pastor Mark