I said good-bye this week to my oldest, dropped him off at the airport and watched him disappear with his carry-on, following his itinerary back to the life he is carving out on the other side of the country. I am growing accustomed to this new relationship that is mostly carried out in words, on a screen, and only occasionally face-to-face– but oh how good it was for a short while to wrap my arms around him again, see his eyes, fall back into the familiar rhythms of family again around the table, in the car, morning and evening. Next time he comes home it will be for his sister’s wedding, and there will be more good-byes to face. It is hard to think of, makes me want to hang on just a little longer to the way things are. But the truth of Christus Victor resounds within: Christ is risen and that changes everything in this world. There is a Hero who has come to save us, and slay the dragons, and there will always be a happy ending to our stories now, even when we walk in shadows for awhile. Good-bye is not the end.

This week friends of ours said good-bye to their own boy most unexpectedly, in the way no parents ever want to face. He was sandwiched between our two, his growing up years threaded through theirs, although I knew him only through the news and photos from his parents. He was getting married next month, a few weeks before our daughter’s wedding. And suddenly he is gone, and what do people do with all the plans and hopes left undone? How do you keep on missing the sound and look and solid weight of your boy beyond that last good-bye? It makes my good-byes so far seem very small, and I weep for them in this wrenching-loose from life that seems like the end of everything.  But I know my friends and I know what kind of boy they raised, and they will face this as they faced all of life, with the truth of Christus Victor over-arching. Our Hero has already defeated the enemy Death, and even this story will have a happy ending, though now we see it only by faith.

All the hard good-byes this week remind me of the theology we are studying in Sunday Small Group, oddly enough, because it matters so very much what we believe. It’s like Justin Holcomb says: “Whether we’re aware of it or not, we all have ideas about who God is, what he expects, and what our place in the world is. Our theology shapes how we live….We are all theologians. The question is, are our thoughts about God true?”

Truth about God gives us an anchor in this world, a framework for understanding our experiences, and hope that does not disappoint because God’s love is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The Truth is that no good-bye is final and someday there will be no more of them, and God is weaving even our partings into the story He is writing. 

“…You make all things work together for my good.
You stay the same through the ages,
Your love never changes,
There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Your Love Never Fails, Jesus Culture)

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:9-11)