May 28, 2010

I have long believed that the more you do something, the easier it becomes. Each mile logged on my bike… every 14er that Mary and I climb… each French Fry dismissed… easier than the time before.

But this morning as I whispered good-bye to Mary just moments before I pushed out the door to catch one more flight, I realized, I’m no good at this. Repetition hasn’t softened the blow. Practice simply magnifies what typically would become dull.

I would consider myself a road warrior; but I’m a "good-bye wimp." It’s as though I leave a piece of my soul behind when I walk away.

I’m convinced that it’s a portion of the price associated with kindred spirits.

"…a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." ~ Genesis 2:24

We were created, before sin entered the scene, to hold fast to each other. To dissolve the barriers of separateness and to become one.

"Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul." ~ Joshua 22:5

And as we do this, we live out the "movie trailer version" of God’s feature length film. "Cling to him"; never, ever get good at saying good-bye. Hold fast to each other and it will be an artist rendering of breathtaking reality; of our connection with our God.

The pain of separation can be a gage… not of dependence, but of unity.

"Hold fast"; "cling"…

Now, five hours away from my whisper… it still stings.

This is why, God, and God alone can promise that He will never, ever say good-bye. He will not leave us. He will never whisper the whisper. It is His promise, His presence that gets us through.

I miss you, Mary.