I recently read Tim Challies’ article “When Goodbye is Forever”. In that article, Tim writes about the last time he told his 20-year-old son Nick goodbye, never thinking it would be the last time he would do so this side of glory (Nick died suddenly a few weeks later without explanation). Standing outside his college residence in Louisville, they hugged, and Tim told his son as he always did that he loved him. They had parted on good terms. I’ve reflected back on that article several times, thinking about our goodbyes.

Tim writes that a fact of life in this tragic world is that any parting may be our last. There are some who see it coming, but there are as many who do not know that they are saying goodbye for the final time, who do not know that this parting is their last, who do not know that death will soon intervene. And surely this challenges us to make every parting a good parting. I think that is good advice.

As we would leave either my childhood home after a visit, or my mother-in-law’s home, my Mom and mother-in-law would both stand outside watching us leave and giving us a goodbye wave. Goodbyes were important to them.

Sadly, I didn’t expect my final words with either my Mom and my Dad to be the final ones. We wished Mom, only 60 years old, well as she was taken into heart bypass surgery, not realizing that we would not be able to communicate with her as she died just two days later. We did know that my Dad was dying just a few years ago as he entered hospice care. Still, the hospice nurse told us that he might have another two weeks to live. As he was getting set up with his bed in his home, and meeting with the hospice nurse, he was cracking jokes, and beaming as he watched photos of his great-grandchildren on his digital picture frame. I said goodnight and that I would see him in the morning. But when I arrived in the morning, he had actively entered into the dying process and he would not hear me tell him that I loved him.

In his article, Tim writes since any goodbye may be final, then surely every goodbye should be loving. We should ensure we are saying farewell as if it is the last time because, at some point, the goodbye will be forever. My wife Tammy doesn’t say “Goodbye”, instead she says “See you later”. I like that. All of this makes me want to give thought to my goodbyes.

Please share about how you say goodbye to your friends and loved ones.