“Goodbye…”
I’m glad we have the word, but, like most of us, I don’t relish using it. Since “goodbye” carries with it the emotional weight of separation, saying it takes some grace and faith.
Last Saturday, Bobbie and I said our goodbyes to her father, Al Platt, who slipped peacefully into the presence of Jesus from his bed at Presbyterian Manor in the quiet early morning hours of Independence Day. We’re comforted by the assurance of Scripture “that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (Phil 1:23).
I love that my father-in-law is experiencing true freedom, that all of his burdens have been lifted and that the challenges of end-of-life frailty are over. I’m so thankful that we could be with him when he died and grateful for his legacy of faith and service to the Kingdom.
Because of Jesus, that goodbye was a hope-filled one.
So is the goodbye I need to say to all of you.
With the clock ticking on my last days here at Grace, I wish I could bid my farewell to each of you face-to-face but, since that’s not possible, I’m just going to blurt it out right here in this my last Staff Journal entry to you—my precious Grace family!
If you’re a classic musical movie fan, I’m sure you can picture the scene and hear the notes from that final and poignant, pre-escape song from “Sound of Music” that begins,
“There's a sad sort of clanging from the clock in the hall and the bells in the steeple too,
and up in the nursery an absurd little bird is popping out to say ‘Cuckoo…!’
Regretfully they tell us…but firmly they compel us…to say goodbye to you.”
“So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night;
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight.
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu, adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu…”
Hmm… so it’s the clock’s fault that Bobbie and I are having to say goodbye to all of you, our friends and family at Grace, and we’re planning to escape to Switzerland?!
Yes, but no… not exactly!
I did hear an internal clock ticking in some way as the Lord told me it’s time to shift gears. But more than that, just as the song in the movie is part of a larger drama, so my “goodbye” is a small piece in an overarching picture of what God is doing at Grace and in our lives. And I can’t thank him enough for the privilege of sharing this journey with you all for the last nearly twenty-three years!
Though it’s not easy to say, I like the origins of “goodbye.”
The expression evidently morphed from “God-be-with-you,” which is a great way to let go, and which expresses the sentiments of my heart and my hope.
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)
I add my “amen” as I say my “goodbye.”
And, I look forward to seeing you on July 19, my last Sunday at Grace as I share my last sermon at Grace as one of your pastors!
Blessings!
Steve