On a recent trip down memory lane, I read some old blog posts, one of which began with the following words, written nearly two years ago:
And so it begins… My emotions and dramatic behavior are beginning to spin out of control. Well, I take that back. It actually began on March 2, 2002, when my first daughter entered this world and stole my heart. My most recent emotional breakdown, however, stems from her moving to Arizona this coming weekend as she embarks on her college adventure.
Those thoughts come from a blog entitled, “Goodbye for Now.” I can write much of the same today, as my girl prepares for her final trek to Arizona in less than two weeks, except this current blog is entitled, “Goodbye Forever?” I’m exaggerating, of course, since she’ll still come home to visit, but she’ll never reside in my house again. I do know that in some ways this will always be her house, but I also know that it’s no longer her home.
She’s engaged to a young man whom she’ll marry shortly after graduating from college next spring. I was the first man in her life, but she’ll soon begin her journey with the last man. As I shared earlier, she stole my heart; now her own heart belongs to someone else. And her new married life will be lived in Phoenix, some 1,400 miles away from her childhood home, where we celebrated so many “firsts,” and are now faced with so many “lasts.”
But it’s not all sad and gloomy. In that blog from nearly two years ago, I also shared some of what blogger and author Kami Gilmour wrote: “Be fully present to support [her] and look forward to the future through the lens of [her] life, not backward through the lens of my life.” Instead of mourning what I’m “losing,” I’ll do everything I can to focus on how exciting this new stage of life will be for her.
It feels like I’m saying “Goodbye Forever,” but in reality, it’s just another version of saying “Goodbye for Now.” And no matter what happens on this earth, since my daughter and I both follow Jesus, we can look forward to the time when we’ll live eternally in a new heaven and a new earth, where God “will wipe every tear from [our] eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4). When that time comes, we’ll never have to say “Goodbye” again, not for now and not forever.
Troy Burns