If any goodbye may be final, then surely every goodbye should be loving. We should never part from those we love in a spirit of anger or bitterness, with sin unconfessed, frustrations unforgiven, or misunderstandings unresolved. Just as we must not be so complacent as to allow the sun to set on our anger, we must not allow sin to shadow our partings.

I didn’t know that I would be saying goodbye to my son for the last time. How could I have known? He was only 20 years old, still in the prime of life, still living in as safe a spot as any. There was no reason to assume, no reason to be concerned, no reason to even think that I might never see him again. Standing outside his college residence, we hugged and I said, as I always did, “I love you, Nick-o.” And I watched him walk away arm-in-arm with the love of his life.

A few weeks later, when the phone call came, I was broken-hearted, of course. I was devastated. But I was also thankful that we had parted on the best of terms. I was thankful that we had expressed love for one another and that our final words were affectionate rather than angry, that they were deliberate rather than careless. I was thankful that our sorrow was not compounded by regret.

A fact of life in this tragic world is that any parting may be our last.

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