"Parting is such sweet sorrow" is a line from the play Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare; Juliet is saying good night to Romeo. Their sorrowful parting is also “sweet” because it makes them think about the next time they will see each other. (At least this is the definition that I found when I looked this quote up on the internet).
Today we had to take Anita and Guinn Green, our dear friends from Tennessee, to Halifax to catch a flight back home. They have been with us for ten days and although we have had a great visit, it is never long enough and we are going to miss them so much. But this is our life: they pastor in Tennessee and we pastor in Nova Scotia, approximately 1500 miles apart.
Although miles may separate good friends physically, with today's technology friendships don't need to cease when we can't be in the same area together. We are blessed to have telephones and email, and video chat and all kinds of ways to keep in touch. We get to keep up with each other's lives and share them to the point that when we do get together, we feel like we have never been apart. We just pick up where we left off.
The disciples had three years of being with Jesus as His friends and students. They ate together, laughed together, traveled together and shared all things together. And yet they knew that the day would come when He would have to leave them. None of them could stop it from happening or prolong their time with Him. I wonder if after He left they thought 'oh I should have told Him that' or 'I wish we could have done that' or 'wouldn't Jesus have enjoyed this'. I think that's a natural reaction to being separated from a friend.
I don't know when we will see Guinn and Anita Green in person again. I pray next year, but we have no control of that. The disciples didn't know when they would see their Friend again either. But the one thing that we have in common with the disciples is that we know that some day we WILL see our friends again in Heaven. We have that blessed assurance that those of us who have put our trust in the Lord, will be together in eternity. What a blessed hope! What a promise!
Although we have been blessed with good friends in the Greens, we have an ever greater Friend in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a Friend that will always be with us. "there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." Proverbs 18:24 He has promised never to leave us. "He will never leave you nor forsake you" Deuteronomy 31:6
I am sure that the disciples could have said to Jesus "parting is such sweet sorrow". They were sorrowful to know He would no longer be with them physically but they had that sweet knowledge that one day they would see Him again. I know that although I had to say good bye for now to the Greens today, I have that same knowledge that I will see them again too. But greater than that I know that some day, when the Lord wills it, we will all have a huge reunion with Him in that heavenly city, the New Jerusalem and we will never be parted again.
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