When A True Friend Dies

There is never an easy way to say goodbye to a true friend, especially when that goodbye is seemingly permanent.  Before as friends, we had many goodbye moments as we parted from each other’s company because we had our lives to live and our own family to go home to.  But then time would pass and we would reconnect and the true friendship went on just as before.  But not this time.  This time, we are saying a different kind of goodbye - a final goodbye. This time it’s final and it is not just sad…it hurts.

It hurts because you could always count on them to be there when you needed them, but now you need them because they are gone and there is no comfort from them right now.  It’s a vicious cycle that just doesn’t seem to end.  You hurt, you need your friend, they died and can’t comfort you, and that hurts, and so on it goes. 

So what do you do right now?  Why not remember them for what they were - a true friend?

But what made them a true friend?  True friends let you be yourself, but also they try to make you better when you were together with them.  True friends let you walk your own life in Christ, but they also strongly push you to become more like Him.  True friends just listen because it’s what you want and then correct you because it’s what you need.  True friends will be an example for you to follow, and then follow when you lead in a godly path.  True friends will always be there to encourage and lift you up…and that’s why this moment hurts so much, because a good friend has just died and none of what made them a true friend will happen anymore. 

“They will be missed.”  You hear that phrase over and over again during this process of loss.  To be honest, sometimes you wish people would find something different to say because you already ARE missing them and being reminded that they are gone only seems to hurt more.  But the fact that they will be so greatly missed is because they were such a crucial part of your life that not having them means life is now somewhat incomplete.  You hurt much because you love much.  Yes, they will be missed, because right now, they already ARE missed.  They were a true friend.

But since you were true friends, you will see each other again, because this kind of true friend shares the same spiritual foundation in Christ.  They knew Him as you know Him, and, actually, to their credit, they got to see Him first.  They are in His presence and nothing you do can change that.  Besides, why should you want to them back, because friends always want what’s best for their true friends and being in Christ’s presence IS the best for them.  Plus your true friend there desires that you go forward here with your life serving God faithfully until He calls you to meet together again in Heaven.

So you must let them go.  Your friend is not here but they are not truly gone either.  Because they knew Christ as their Savior, they have become a truer friend than they ever were here on earth.

1 Corinthians 15:54-57 "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? -- The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Goodbye true friend, until we meet again.