You say hello, I say goodbye, Acts 1:6-14, Jn 17:20-26, Schaefer/ Hall

...We've said good byes in our life and none of them were easy. We wonder where the years went.  But there he is--a kid who one moment was fighting with his brother and the next going off to Penn State. So stand bravely in the driveway.  She raises her hand and says, "you'll be home next week-end, right?" And they both say good bye.   Somewhere else two people come to say good bye. Their relationship just isn't going anywhere. They go our on some dates, but as the weeks are swallowed by seasons, they realize it's over.  Time to say good bye.  Not just farewell to the movies and lunches and shopping and games.   But really good bye to a presence and a quality that will never completely be recovered.  Saying good bye is hard.

Something deep down in us resists the move from presence to absence.  When someone is present to us, our space is filled, we are not alone.  There is conversation and communion. When someone leaves us, there is crisis.  Absence means silence--lonely, gaping silence. One thing is for sure--we had better get accustomed to bidding farewell. Life is a series of leave-takings, movement from presence to absence. Carly Simon sings, "Nobody ever stays in one place anymore. You say hello, but I say good-bye." . . click for full manuscript