Goodbye

Over the years I can remember many memorable goodbye's.  My friend and I were very sad at saying goodbye to our school and favorite teacher in 10th grade because we were going to the "high school."  I said goodbye to my best friend in high school who went into the Army.  I said goodbye to my family in Oklahoma to move to Texas and be near my soon-to-be wife.  Laura and I said goodbye to family and friends and moved to Lubbock, Texas.  We said goodbye two years later to Texas and moved back to Oklahoma.  I can remember feeling a lot of emotions with each of these "goodbye's."  Sometimes tears, sometimes fear, sometimes anxiety, and sometimes even excitement.  When you think of Christmas, goodbye is the last thought on your mind.  The birth of Jesus is about "hello" and not "goodbye."  God, in a way, was saying hello to us in the best way possible.  He sent His Son, Emmanuel, to show us what God is like.  Jesus birth was a greeting from God announcing, "I love you and I have come to save you!"  But before Jesus came to earth, He had to leave heaven.  He had to say, "Goodbye."   Jesus had to say goodbye to a reality that we cannot comprehend.  His goodbye would have been greater than any we could ever experience.  And yet, He left a place and experience behind that is beyond our imagination, to come to earth and be born as a peasant.  He left everything to have nothing.  He said goodbye to the highest place of honor possible to be treated as an outcast.  I can only imagine that "goodbye" has a much different meaning for Jesus than it does for me.  What I do know, is that I am grateful that Jesus said goodbye to heaven and was born, lived a perfect life, died for my sin, and rose from the grave.  On this Christmas, I celebrate the coming of Jesus but I am especially thankful that He was willing to say, "Goodbye."