A Time for Good-byes ...

It’s not that I can’t wait for summer. I love summer and I love summer with my family.

It’s just that there is something about this time of year that produces in me a surge of sentimentality.

I’m all choked up.

Tears are close to the surface, occasionally breaking through and slowing rolling down on to the pillow of my heart.

Today is the last day of school for my little ones. Shortly, I will head over to sit back and relax and watch the “Learning Celebration,” where each child will be given a “Christ-like characteristic” that their teacher has witnessed in them this year.

It’s a beautiful time to sit back and relax and enjoy – but,  invariably, my heart will also sit back and be heavy.

I think it’s the “good-byes.”

It’s the change.

It’s the moving from the familiar into the unknown of the future.

Before I know it, my mind is flooded with vignettes from my past of “good-byes.”  Good-bye’s to dreams. Good-bye’s to friends. Good-bye’s to love ones. Good-bye’s to …

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but maybe these “good-byes” are milestones marking time.

Perhaps, they mark time of what – was, was not, is and is yet to be.

It’s confusing, like so many things in life – a swirl of excitement and sorrow. 

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

A time to be born and a time to die,

A time to plant and a time to uproot,

A time to kill and a time to heal,

A time to tear down and a time to build,

A time to weep and a time to laugh,

A time to mourn and time to dance,

A time to scatter stones and time to gather them,

A time to embrace and a time to refrain,

A time to search and a time to give up,

A time to keep and a time to throw away,

A time to tear and a time to mend,

A time to be silent and time to speak,

A time to love and time to hate,

A time for war and time for peace.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Dear Lord,

Thank you for your faithfulness.  Please help those of us who may be standing on the precipice of change, having to say good-bye to things we have, people we love, dreams we’ve pursued, to give thanks and rest in Your love for us. Help us to remember that You are in control of all things and that You are good. 

Amen