Goodbyes are hard. We just said farewell to our good friends and watched as they drove away in a moving truck. We’ve known them for 20 years, having met them when we moved to town and we were both house hunting on a blistering hot Oklahoma day. We kept bumping into each other as we were touring a model home, making comments about the various aspects of the house. That was the beginning of our friendship and now today we said goodbye for now on another hot Oklahoma morning.

 

I’ve been thinking about our goodbye in light of Ephesians and all I’m learning about what God is doing as he builds His kingdom. For the believer, this world is not the final destination, the kingdom is. Some day we’re going to enjoy a life without goodbyes. Though farewells bring sadness, they’re not the final chapter but a piece of the story somewhere in the middle. Goodbyes are a simply a reality of living on this side of forever and a piece of the journey as we travel toward eternity.