Life is short and full of the unexpected.
One never knows if the last time you
see someone will be the last time you
see them in this world.
I'm at the age, friends, and stage in
life, where most of my friends have departed
by death and are already in heaven.
A couple of years ago, I was having
dinner with Norman Geisler, and he was telling
me about the latest book he was writing.
And he got me to laughing by telling
me he was mad at Adrian Rogers.
I said, why on earth are you mad
at Adrian Rogers?
And Norman Geisler said, because he didn't leave
me his voice.
And although I knew at the time Dr.
Geisler was in frail health, I didn't know
that four months later he'd be dead.
Sometimes people leave us way too soon when
we least expect it.
But there are other times, because of health
reasons or specific circumstances, when we know we
will never see a friend or loved one
again.
And it's in the saying goodbye that matters.
We get a sense of this from the
book of Acts and chapter 20, where the
apostle Paul is on his last voyage to
Rome.
And along the way, he stops to meet
with the Ephesian elders for the last time.
It's a heart warming passage.
We see the tender scene in verses 35
through 38, which reads, I have showed you
all things, how that so laboring he ought
to support the weak, and to remember the
words of the Lord Jesus, how he said,
it is more blessed to give than to
receive.
And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled
down and prayed with them all, and they
all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck
and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for
the words which he spake, that they should
see his face no more, and they accommodate
him onto the ship.
I will stop there.
Times of departing are heartfelt times, especially when
it is the last time.
I remember the last time I saw Adrian
Rogers, I was in a room with him,
with Henry Blackaby and Ted Randall, and it
came time to say goodbye.
And Dr. Rogers was so fatigued from his
chemotherapy, he could barely walk across the room,
and he came over to me, and he
threw his arms around me, and he pulled
me tightly to him, and he held me
a long time, and he didn't let me
go until it became almost embarrassing.
It was his way of saying goodbye to
me, because he knew it was the last
time we'd meet, for in just a couple
of months I was looking at him in
his coffin.
Departing friends leave memories that won't easily depart
from us.
How we depart is in the how of
our goodbyes.