Never Really Goodbye?

By all accounts the answering machine you see at the right is quite ordinary. We are trying our hand at a garage sale this weekend, and we are clearing out some things that we are no longer using. You might even be able to see that I have already marked it for $.50.

To ensure that we would not be selling unusable items, I plugged it in to see if it worked. Looked good. One old message from years ago. I hit "play", and there came a voice from the past--a woman who loved to use the telephone to visit frequently at length with her beloved family.

I called Kathy to the garage and told her she had to listen. It was her mother, now dead for four years. At the first words of the message, Kathy's eyes showed suprise. By the end of the message, those same eyes were glistening with tears. She took the answering machine from me. We would not be selling this piece of electronic equipment for $.50 when there was something much more valuable attached.

In Kathy's heart, her mom is not gone forever. Surely, to this world she is lost, but there is another world to come. Perhaps a digitized voice is a way to hang on to that certain hope in Christ. Christians truly never really go away--we just change our addresses.

Other important people to us (and to all of Bethel Lutheran Church) are departing us. This morning Kathy and I had breakfast with Dale and Helen Mundahl while the movers were finishing up the packing of their belongings onto a truck. They will moving close to their two children and five grandchildren in the Twin Cities! (For readers unfamiliar with Bethel, Dale has been our magnificent church organist for 46 years!)

It is hard to say goodbye to good friends, even servants of Christ. But we have already made plans to see each other again. We really never go away--we just change our addresses. And all of our addresses are temporary until we come to the home being prepared for us by none other than the Son of God. Talk about high quality construction!

God's peace to you in your comings and goings.