A LAST GOODBYE

THE SCENARIO: This scenario is about a goodbye that was not supposed to be enduring. You see, the immediate future, O the immediate future..., it necessitated that they step onto divergent paths for a while. Just for a little while, no more than that, surely. One last loving embrace; so tight. And whilst moving, as in slow motion, shuffling, each shuffling into their immediate future, they blew a kiss, eyes still locked in loving embrace, and waved goodbye, never to see each other again, in this life, for death would soon visit the one. And yet, there remained the other. Grieving, hurting. Blessed reunion, but deferred, now awaits only Glory; a Glory enduring.

In the outworking of this scenario please consider the following:

1. The immediate future—it necessitates that we do things, maybe with some measure of risk. Activities and agendas, engagements and errands, plans and promises; the immediate future. Do we not take it in stride, and more or less unreservedly face our immediate future and its obligations, its opportunities, notwithstanding its opaqueness? Sure, for we are servants of Jehovah, sovereign God most high; we serve Him, and commit our lives into His hands, to do with as He pleases for the accomplishment of His great purposes in the world. This is the transference of all trust into His hands irrespective of the cost, so that He, whom we love, might be glorified. This same spirit characterizes the beloved Christian martyrs, who love not their life more than God. In this spirit we face our immediate future unreservedly. And so it was for the subjects of our scenario—with a final wave goodbye, one stepped but into their immediate future, ever so for God, while the other stepped into an immediate future that soon translated into eternity future in the personal presence of their beloved God Jehovah (2Cr 4:14, 5:6-8). And thus the former, aggrieved, nonetheless faces their immediate future in the presence of that very God who called the latter home to Himself. Thus they, though in person separated, are very much together through the common ground of God's presence with each. Here is a manifest fruit of Salvation extended to the saints, and is it not wonderful for all concerned...(“A Letter of Invitation”). Praised and thanked be our great savior God for it.

2. One never knows when a goodbye will be a last goodbye. Our friends upon whom we based this scenario made the most of what would turn out to be their last goodbye. And the memories—there were good memories for the survivor. It is good to dwell on such. Sometimes, at first, when the wound of Loss still bleeds, remembering may hurt too much. But that by God's exceeding grace heals, at least to a degree that God knows we can bear, and memories can thus eventually bring a contented joy. This is especially true for those who have lost loved ones who had come to Jesus Christ for Salvation.

   Upon the mention of Salvation our thoughts turn to our blessed Savior and His last goodbyes. Jesus wanted to be remembered (Luk 22:19, 1Cr 11:24-25). Every time we break bread and drink the wine as a Body of believers we do so in remembrance of our Lord; in remembrance of what He did for us. We remember His blessed person, His love for us (Rom 8:35-39), His tireless labors for us—His Sacrifice for the forgiveness of Sin and its attendant curse of Death, and then too we remember His Resurrection (“Holy Week”), He here first among the brethren departed to be resurrected (1Cr 15:20-23, 2Cr 5:6-8). And so this fellowship around the Lord's Table brings to remembrance Jesus Christ, His Sacrifice, His Resurrection, and therefore also our own resurrection, and the resurrection of those loved ones to whom we have said goodbye for the last time in this life. In this way the survivor in our scenario finds comfort and peace and a joyful anticipation of the future, even eternity future, at the Lord's Table (Mat 26:29-remembering a goodbye with a promise).

3. A general observation for discussion. The human mind is cognizant of the “fact,” or, certainty, of death, yet it is at the same time unconvinced of it personally, for humankind, created in the image of God, eternal, understands themselves as eternal beings. Others have said that this is primarily why humankind preoccupies itself with myriad entertainments and preoccupations—distractions if you will, precisely to assuage, to “put out of mind,” the psychological and spiritual frustration that churns inside because of this vexing dilemma (cognizant, or undeniable mortality, over against an innate sense of and therefore a certain capacity to grasp immortality; and at another level, cognizant, or undeniable finiteness [=constraint], over against an innate sense of and therefore a certain capacity to grasp infiniteness [=nonconstraint]). And thus death, outright of loved ones or friends or even those more distant, or the pronouncement of it somehow (a negative medical report for example), usually comes as a numbing shock to “rational” people because they have lived unconvinced of it personally, heretofore not intimately confronted by it. If you will allow a theological aside: an unbeliever, thus unconvinced, has no need of God, for they resort to more and more distractions, thus keeping God and His Reality, which includes death for humankind (but Life too) at bay—but not so the believer, whose preoccupation is God and His Reality, and thus Truth, which necessarily translates then to a sober estimation of self, and one's or loved ones' fate.

   Some thoughts on suffering for discussion. Painful last goodbyes are unpleasant in and of themselves, but what of suffering in this context (here is fertile ground for the atheist, yet too for those who have glorified God in the midst of this—the atheist twists this one way while the martyr-servant looking to God, in the strength of God, endures this...in another, more excellent way). When our loved ones or friends suffer at their end, God's purposes in that are oftentimes confusing to us, especially if children are involved. Allow us to turn to the book of Job for some guidance from Scripture. Please hear, and feel with Job in chapter three, where he by now feels the swarming press of his losses and misery and pain so acutely; he is here broken (no more masks; God can engage Job better now), and now questions (but does not curse, as Satan would have it), God (Job 3:1-7, 8-14, 15-21, 22-24). From the outset however please notice that he was, and remained, a faithful Job, intimately tethered to his beloved God and His swarming abiding Presence (Job 1:21, 2:9-10, 13:15, 42:1-6). Nonetheless, it is here where faith and trust in God—His purposes, His will, His very existence—may be acutely tested; it is here where bitterness may take root and turn faith and trust into apathy or into an unforgiving hostility toward or abandonment of God. Some say that there are no easy answers here, but nay—Jehovah God collateralizes His purposes with Himself, and thus not only are they lofty, way beyond our understanding (Isa 55:8-9), but it must follow too that God is manifestly with His own when they suffer, supernaturally comforting them, empowering them to cope, and not least, in concert with this coping, empowering them to practically achieve His purposes in the instants of their greatest distress, need, and suffering, up to and through their end if He deems that this is the end (consider Deu 31:6, Isa 43:2-7, 49:14-15, Mat 28:20-EGW MEQ hUMWN EIMI PASAS TAS hHMERAS EWS THS SUNTELEIAS-literally ”...I even I am with you all the days until the Consummation [=end of the age]...”, et al.). Dearest reader, with less emphasis on the practical now, how could it be otherwise (God's manifest presence with His suffering own) with a God who wept when His friend (and believers are His friends) suffered and died (Jhn 11:33-36, 15:15, cf. Luk 19:41)?! Thus was God with his friend Job, for it was upon God that Job cast his questioning brokenness, as though with tears falling upon the neck of His Beloved for answers. And He, condescending, gracious, ever nearby, bearing said brokenness, surely with His own tears, yea He, bearing, fielding questions, thus nearby, even in the midst of the misery and pain, held tightly His trusting friend Job in his confusion and sorrow and suffering. Indeed, Job knew his Friend was with him, nearby, and it was as balm to his suffering soul. For this reason Job's well-meaning friends (critics)—even their works-centric condemnatory low-plane chatter—was not as balm to Job (quite the opposite), not least because Job was attuned to that gracious high-plane sovereign Presence, all else thus necessarily but low-plane chatter, yea, noise and static. Here is serious confusion, low-plane stuff (Job 13:4-5, 12)—we mean to say, Job's confusion paled in comparison to his friends' confusion, for these two things Job understood by the Spirit of God, while his friends could not put the two together: (1) Exd 33:19; (2) Isa 55:8-9. And based on his (1)+(2) theology, Job steadfastly claimed throughout that his sorry condition was independent of sin he might have committed (and all along God concurred [Job 1:1, 8, 2:3, 9-10]), he Job believing instead that God for His own purposes, which unbeknownst to Job included the testing and refining of Job of course, had smitten him (Job 9:17-18,16:12-14, 19:21-22, et al.). The sin that folded back on Job was but that he had (in the furnace developed?) a shortened view of God. Broken Job, upright, now upright and pliable, unto refining, was soon to get that expensive expansive view of God (in the face of refining it never comes cheap), as straightaway God peppered Job with some questions (!) of His own in this regard (Job 38:1-39:30,40:6-41:34). And Job finally got the point; my, see how his horizons/view of God expanded—with a little help from God nearby—to the expanding of his faith in God no less (Job 40:3-5, 42:1-6)!—the bigger one's picture of God the better—O let it never diminish!, even in the furnace, for in lockstep diminishes faith in God, itself a lifeline-tether in all circumstances. God loved His questioning, notwithstanding, tightly-tethered suffering servant Job (Job 42:7-13, 14-17). Questions may (oftentimes do) surface as tough Job-like scenarios unfold, but O dearest sovereign Father God Jehovah, sensitize and strengthen us here, such that faith in you and love for you may hold fast. Well, the apathetic, or skeptical, or unbelievers, may curl their lip right here, at the mention of the supernatural (in short, that God collateralizes His purposes with Himself as suggested above), but please notice that we have reached at this point a dynamic of the human experience where reason fails us, where reason breaks down—it is as that great reasoner and Christian servant Blaise Pascal once said: “...the heart has its reasons that reason does not know...” Heart and head; the heart over against the head—yes, the heart may know God's gracious presence at such times when the head cannot; for our purposes it is oftentimes in those desperate, more intensely probing times of distress, need, and suffering, times when the end seems to be certain, that a heart that heretofore knows God, straightaway arbitrates the Truth of His Presence to the head (we know God through His Word, through prayerful meditation on the same, for there He intimately meets us these days “A Letter of Invitation”). And it is because this Presence cannot be cerebrated satisfactorily, for grasping God is way beyond the limits of human cognition after all, that cognizance of it must first be a “heart-experience” if you will, one personally suited to the unique character and spirit of individual believers, thus quite different from one believer to the next, and also from one circumstance to the next (here is Complexity [by very definition complexity is that which is not tractable by human cognition alone]); yet it is the same Presence. We praise Thee great savior God, and exceedingly love Thee our abiding Comforter and Friend.

4. “...Hurtin' so bad; I miss you baby...” cries out the survivor when caught up in their humanness. It must be said, and heard by someone dear, and sensitive, and trusted—Christ's hands and feet; His comforting and encouraging and reassuring embraces and devoted attention and concern. It must be thus heard by the church family. O the Blessing of such a family. It is the body of Christ (“Messengers of His Love”).

   We are reminded of Jesus' separation from Father God whilst He suffered on the Cross. How penetrating, how deeply, that separation must have hurt Jesus. He went through that so that we might never be separated from Him, the lover of our souls (see how He is necessarily nearby with His own in all circumstances?); so too that we might be reunited with our loved ones one golden day—He knows we desire this. How He understands us (Psa 139:1-4), even our deepest sorrows, and how He loves us, that by the Sacrifice of Himself He might replace our deepest sorrows with joy: “...weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning...” (Psa 30:5). O golden morn' dawning soon, strewn with the radiance of His love for His own. We praise Thee great savior God; come Lord Jesus; shine Thy precious golden face upon us great God; soon gather us unto Thee.

5. We spoke of '...a blessed reunion deferred...' in the scenario setup—what is meant by that? It is that the survivor has yet a life to live out for Jesus Christ. So too all awaits Jesus' return for His own, and the gracious impartation of our heavenly, spiritual bodies by which we, children of the resurrection, will be known for eternity (1Cr 15:40-46, 47-50, 51-57, 58, Rev 2:17, “Children of the Resurrection,” “Psalm Sixteen Commentary”; notice that it is but a [sweet nonetheless] reunion at such time [Mat 22:30, Luk 20:36], for Jehovah God will be our central Reunion).

6. Glory. Where Jehovah God is, precisely there is (even His) Glory. And so it follows that where Jehovah God is, precisely there is His Goodness, for His glory is His goodness, the extent of which we cannot fully appreciate in this life—but our beloved departed brethren can and do thus appreciate God's Glory! This is good. Let us prayerfully attempt to list some of this goodness:

• they now know Jehovah God, a holy God, intimately, as never before;

• bathed by the light of God's holiness, His love, His peace; appreciation of these as never before;

• consummate understanding of God's manner of government and socioeconomics, His laws, His justice, and thus exceeding appreciation of His gracious redemption and attendant salvation;

• clothed in the consummate righteousness of their Savior Jesus Christ—the beatific state; no more Sin, forever free of it (in fact no Sin/evil whatsoever to be found in God's abode—now too their abode);

• consummate understanding of God's purposes for humankind; consummate clarity over against this, our rebellion (Sin) and the loss of the Edenic Fellowship; His determined seeking and welcoming home penitent rebels (sinners) so as to restore fellowship; they can appreciate and experience the inestimable worth of fellowship with God better than ever before;

• no more death, no more suffering, no more tears, no more worries;

• consummate understanding of the Creation, the handiwork of God: God's purposes behind it, His approaches—His manner of design and engineering, His science, the beautiful and elegant poetry of His mathematics; His art and artistry, His music; His work ethic, His play ethic, His Ethic per se;

• His riches and eye-popping wealth (now theirs as heirs);

• there is so much more but we cannot attain to it, so we shall let it stand right here Christian friend, rejoicing for our beloved brethren homeward departed.

7. Dearest Christian friend, have you experienced a painful last goodbye? Has our Lord called one/s dear to you home to Himself? You are probably torn inside knowing that your friend/s or loved one/s are at home with our Lord beholding His loving face, and you rejoice over that, and yet you no doubt sorely miss them too. How we wish we could be nearby and carry your sorrows somehow concerning the latter. We love you Christian friend, and though our prayers are general, intended for all our brethren who thus sorrow, we know our Lord applies our prayers aright, and so in this way we lift you before Him in prayer Christian friend. Please shine your loving face on our grieving brethren great savior God; give them your peace; encourage and strengthen them; reassure them that their loved one/s is now forever home with you, in your manifest, personal presence so very, very good—Glory. Thank you Lord. Amen.

Works Cited and References

“A Letter of Invitation.”

Jesus, Amen.

< http://jesusamen.org/aletterofinvitation.html >

“Children of the Resurrection.”

Jesus, Amen.

< http://jesusamen.org/childrenoftheresurrection.html >

“Have You Considered My Servant Job?”

Jesus, Amen.

< http://jesusamen.org/myservantjob.html >

“Holy Week.”

Jesus, Amen.

< http://jesusamen.org/holyweek.html >

“Messengers of His Love.”

Jesus, Amen.

< http://jesusamen.org/messengersofhislove.html >

“Psalm Sixteen Commentary,”

Jesus, Amen.

< http://jesusamen.org/commentarypsa16.html >

“The Fourth Cup.”

Jesus, Amen.

< http://jesusamen.org/thefourthcup.html >

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE LEGEND

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