September 16th, 2012
I believe everyone has, at one time or another, had to say goodbye to someone very loved. It is an emotion that has been experienced – heart-wrenchingly, at times – by almost every person I’ve ever known closely. This song was written during my own “watershed moment” with God, as I wrestled with the loss of those I loved very dearly. A family I’d long cherished and alongside whom I’d spent an entire childhood serving God was moving – and not under the best circumstances. Before they’d even left, I found my heart already aching from the loss of what had been and, more so, from the loss of all I’d hoped for the future. I sat with God a long time, praying and crying. Sometimes, tears just have to wash away all the clutter we let rest in our soul so that we can truly hear God’s Spirit trying to whisper His comfort and care to us. It was not very long until I did come to peace with the farewell to my dear ones. I realized that, of course, God had us all in His hands and was not letting go of us, no matter how far we might be spread, one from another, across this wide world. This song became my blessing over these whom I loved… my goodbye.
In the years since, I’ve found occasion to hold this song close to my heart, time and time again. For life never ceases to change. Those we love are sometimes taken from this world early. Some are moved far away. Some relationships grow “quiet,” despite the truest intentions of our hearts. God is present in all things—even in goodbyes. I’ve found they provide some of my most “stripped-bare” moments of honesty before my Creator—the most selfless times of blessing others, even in losing them, and of blessing Him.
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace…
For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
-Philippians 1:3-11 ESV
Go with God
The moment must come in every life,
When the paths of friends must part,
And the moment that we realize how the time flies, we may find
That that time has come to say goodbye.
Now go with God. Don’t let us hold you back.
Say goodbye, and follow the path
That God planned for your feet to walk.
Goodbye, dear friends; now go with God.
We never had planned for this to happen,
But we know God knows what’s best,
And, although I cannot know why God is moving us apart,
We must still trust His will with all our hearts.
Now go with God. Don’t let us hold you back.
Say goodbye, and follow the path
That God planned for your feet to walk.
Goodbye, dear friends; now go with God.
God planned where your feet would walk…
Goodbye, dear friends… Goodbye, dear friends…
Goodbye, dear friends… Now go with God.
©2007 Amy Elizabeth Salter (Rutherford)
