I am convinced that human beings were not created to say goodbye.
From a Christian perspective, there was once paradise on earth: the Garden of Eden. In that world, before sin claimed humanity, Adam and Eve could not die. All that is known is that the tree from which they ate, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, brought about their exile and ultimately their death. Perhaps the only other named tree, the Tree of Life, had something to do with their immortality, but essentially, the point is that originally...
Man was not created to die. Our bodies can function endlessly without the wearing of time we call aging; our bodies are machines built to last forever, if it were not for disease and consequences of sin. Adam and Eve were created to live forever in paradise, but one fatal mistake forced them to eventually part. They were the first goodbye, the very word that echoed down to our broken present time.
So, I believe that the worst outcome of the Fall is not pain during work for men or even pain during childbirth for woman but the pain of saying goodbye. Saying goodbye is a direct result of the Fall of Man.
Not only does it feel unnatural to us who can never quite say goodbye sincerely, but there is never a pain like it. The only recorded time that Jesus cried publicly was when he mourned what was to come for Jerusalem and for his deceased friend Lazarus. Both are clear examples of the hardship of saying goodbye, and especially the latter is interesting because Jesus cried even though he knew he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead. Why? Because Jesus was fully God and fully human, completely understanding the pain of what we go through on a daily basis. Why does it hurt so much? Because every time the word is spoken, the entire weight of the Fall returns like a tainted heirloom passed down countless generations.
We are humans, and we say goodbye. It is what we do. But it is not who we are.
We were not created to see our loved ones die, and we were not formed to be separated from those we love. Even personally, we literally cannot comprehend the idea of leaving this world; we can barely endure long-distance relationships.
We only know the repeating loop of hello leads to goodbye, when in reality, God created an eternal hello we have yet to see. You may know it as Heaven.
Goodbye has ruled our world since the Fall, but there will come a time when one man who said goodbye two thousand years ago will return and ensure that we will never have to say that God-forsaken word anymore by the uttering of one simple word.
The God of the Universe is returning to banish goodbye back to hell from where it once came.
Welcome to the Eternal Hello.
