No More Goodbyes

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes,

And death shall be no more,

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore,

for the former things have passed away.”

Rev. 21:4

Our grandson John hates saying goodbye.  Bethany posted a picture the other day on Facebook.  They had just taken Jon, Dora and Kellan to the airport for their return trip to Hungary.  In the picture John’s little heart was obviously broken.  He was crying his eyes out.  According to Bethany even after he stopped crying all John kept saying was “Want Kellan!  Want Kellan!” 

As I looked at that picture, I wanted to tell him, “John, we understand.”  While you and your parents went through passport control to go back to the USA, Nana and Pop Pop were standing behind, tears rolling down our cheeks.  The same thing happened as we went through security after Ben and Dillan dropped us at the airport in Buffalo.  I hate saying good bye. 

Yet in this world goodbyes are unavoidable.  Indeed the number of goodbyes only seems to increase as you get older.  I sat here today trying to think of all the major goodbyes in our lives over the last few years.    The list starts with saying goodbye to each of our kids as they left home for college.  I remember Jimmy Hughes and I as we left after taking our daughters to their first year of college.  All the way through southern Wisconsin Jimmy and I stared out opposite sides of his pickup truck.  That way the other wouldn’t see the tears.  Even harder was saying goodbye to each of our parents when they died. I remember the day we sent Jon off to China for the first time.  We have said goodbye to Lamb of God when I took this call… to good friends and worse to family as we moved across the ocean.  That part of traveling back to Germany has not gotten any easier. 

I share this not for sympathy but because I imagine there are just as many good byes in your life.  I bet you don’t like to say it any more than I do.  After all each good bye is a reminder that one day the hardest goodbye is coming.  I remember one time when my parents were visiting us in Texarkana.  My dad was laughing and joking with our kids.  In the front seat tears were rolling down my cheeks knowing that someday such moments would be over… that one day my dad would die.  That’s just a fact of life in this sin sick world – the goodbye of death comes to everyone.

Thank God for faith in Jesus.  That faith is our only hope in the face of death.  Remember what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians – “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who have fallen asleep or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.  We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.”  We grieve and miss our fellow believers who have died.  But we grieve with hope.  We have hope because Jesus rose from the dead.  That means believers don’t say goodbye to one another.  We use the German word “aufwiedersehen,” which means “Until I see you again.”  After all we are looking forward to an eternal reunion in heaven.  I don’t know how many times I have shared that with grieving families.

Today though, I want to take this a step farther. I want to share with you one of the great joys we look forward to in eternity with our Lord.  Yes, because of Him, on this side of death we grieve as those who have hope.  We say “aufwiedersehen” not “goodbye.”  Eternity will be even better.  Think for a moment about what these words tell us about the joys of heaven.  “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore,

for the former things have passed away.”  Did you catch that?  Death shall be no more!  Because of Jesus in eternity – there will be NO MORE GOODBYES.  Alleluia!  I can’t wait.  Amen.