Goodbye … For Now

August 29, 2008

By Rose McCormick Brandon

A Christian father wrote a message for his 25-year-old soldier son’s funeral: “I long for the day when we’ll meet again. Goodbye for now. Your father, your friend.”

Goodbye might be the saddest word in the English language. A short form of the phrase “God be with you,” goodbye is used when we part from someone or conclude a visit. My husband makes long goodbyes. His grandmother says he picked it up from his father. They linger after hugging and saying goodbye, unwilling to put a period at the end of their goodbyes.

Life’s celebrated moments often produce goodbyes. Graduations bring tearful goodbyes, knowing never again will the exact people be gathered in one place. A bride and groom say goodbye to their families and head into the world together. Children grow up and say goodbye. We see them often but never in the same context as living at home as a family.

The hardest goodbyes accompany death. Earth’s permanent goodbyes force us to look beyond death’s finality to a time when we’ll see our siblings in Christ again. The greatest of all earthly hopes is our hope of the resurrection, when the dead in Christ will rise to a new and fuller life.

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16, NIV).

The hope of resurrection allows Christians to put a comma instead of a period after goodbye.

The grieving father wrote, “Goodbye, for now.” He adds “for now” knowing he’ll be with his son again when they meet again in heaven. When Jesus was saying His “goodbye, for now,” He comforted the disciples with these words:

“Don’t let this throw you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live” (John 14:1-3, The Message).

The hope that all believers will live where Jesus lives gives us strength to say

goodbye … for now.

— Rose McCormick Brandon writes personal experience essays, Bible studies, news articles, profiles and devotionals from her home in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada.