Good goodbyes

Patricia A. Harris

I Have a good friend named Jake. We've been friends for a long time—even since before Jake's brother Christopher was born. Jake and I liked to read and do stuff together. Once we pretended that we were air traffic controllers in Jake's basement. Jake was the boss, and I was his helper. We successfully landed a lot of planes.

You can see why I was sad when Jake and Christopher and their mom and dad moved three thousand miles away. Jake and Christopher flew to their new home with their grandmother while their mom and dad drove a moving van across the country. It was hard not to feel lonely as we said "goodbye." But we've talked on the phone many times since then. Once I even got to visit them when I traveled to their state.

Maybe a friend of yours or you yourself have had to move to a new place. Saying "goodbye" isn't sad, though, when you remember that God is with you. He is with your friend to whom you've said "goodbye." He's also with the new people you meet. The Bible says God is Love (see I John 4:8). And it's the truth! He is loving and caring for all of us, all the time. He is omnipresent. That means He is always present—always right with us. He is never absent or far away. The Bible tells us He is "a God at hand" (see Jer. 23:23, 24).

God, divine Mind, is as close a friend as you or I will ever have, because we can never really be separated from Him. Man is His idea—spiritual and complete. When we are thinking thoughts that come from Him, we are joyful and good and content. God is telling us of His love every minute no matter where we are or where our friends may be.

At one time my family moved a lot. I changed schools in the third grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, and ninth grade. Most of the time the moves were OK. But when we moved while I was midway through the ninth grade, it was terrible! I had to say "goodbye" to my best friend Mac and our gang—Barbara, Korin, and Mark. We were all in choir and speech class together. We had all had parts in the school plays. The move didn't seem fair to me at all.

My new school was awful, too. I was just plain miserable. That's when I decided to talk to my Christian Science Sunday School teacher. She showed me this sentence in Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy: "Space is no separator of hearts" (p. 150).

There were one hundred and twenty miles of space between me and my friends, but I realized that God, Love, was filling every mile. He was also filling my thought with peace and contentment. As His image, I could not be separated from good, or from expressing Godlike qualities. I saw it was God's love that had made my friendships so special in the first place.

As it turned out, space didn't separate any hearts despite this move. Things at the new school turned around. I made great, new friends, and I began a new kind of friendship with an old one. Mac and I became penpals. Would you believe we were still writing to each other ten years later when I graduated from law school!

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

Arise! It's God's day!

January 2, 1995

Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit