Saying Goodbye

"We will miss you."

We heard this in various forms from various people over the last month or so. It was especially concentrated this last week as we participated in the last of our usual activities, my last run with Sandy, my last lunch with Retha, our last Gideon camp meeting and prayer meeting, our last church service and fellowship. Some of the expressions weren’t in words; instead they were in tearful hugs. We had many of those hugs the last few days.

Gary had the camera ready to capture some of those, but he missed them. He will have a few more chances this week as we say goodbye to our family.

I am thankful for these expressions from people. We all want to be remembered.

Not all of our partings were this way. They ranged from cheerful good wishes, through promises to visit, to the tearful ones. Stronger reactions came from people we had shared with more deeply in the time of our acquaintance. I know that the people I remember most in my life have been the ones who listened and cared about me, not the ones who impressed me with their greatness or accomplishments.

The hardest partings for me now are from the people who have shown they care about me.

The Lord has been working for years on my ability to share my heart with other people and to be more caring toward them. These tears from others at our parting show me that He has had some success in that area in my life. For that reason, I am thankful for all these tears.

Perspective

I made my daughter cry on Thanksgiving. The permanence of our planned stay in Thailand became clear to her during our evening phone call. It made me sad to upset Amanda so much.

This was still on my mind Friday after I got the turkey cooking in Jennifer’s oven for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was a beautiful day so my husband suggested I take my run for the day. (Yes, he does make good suggestions sometimes) I decided to take an opposite route from the way I usually go from Jennifer’s and headed up to the left in conversation with God. Running along one straight, flat street I was praying about Amanda’s tears at our leaving and asking if we are really doing what He wants. Then I turned a corner to see the blue expanse of the sound under a blue sky with puffy clouds.
(Notice how the road disappears right after the white van)

I had never seen this view before, though I have run on that road several times. The view is at the top of a kind of hill I, as a runner, haven't learned to be thankful for yet. I still think of it as

tough to get through, or over. I rarely look back when I run, so I would always have remembered the hardness of that road rather than the beautiful view if I hadn’t gone that other way.

God used this to speak to my heart about His perspective on this coming sadness. Yes, this Leaving Time is hard, but He can see beauty in it from His viewpoint. Zech’s comment about “God is good” in their blog came back to me (reallifeontheedge.blogspot.com). He reminded me that God is good, all the time and everything He does is good, whether it seems that way to us or not. There is still the question of whether we are doing what God wants, but I see God leading us to Thailand as much as I have understood His leading at any other time in my life. That beautiful view at the right moment gave me reassurance and hope that His Good will come through this time of tears.