Saying Goodbye - Children’s Sermon

This time of year brings about lots of goodbyes. Neighbors are moving, school is ending for the summer, and if you are in the military it is lovingly referred to as PCS season (which basically means half of everyone you know is packing up and moving, possibly even you).

Following is the script from the Children’s Sermon I gave at First Presbyterian Church of El Paso on June 5, 2016. Feel free to use in your own Children’s Time, adapt as necessary. I am sure there are a few details that will need to be adjusted to fit your own story. Just remember as you are writing, they never actually go as planned. The kids always add their own cute addition. For example, during this one my middle child asked “we’re moving?” to which I made sure to clarify that even though our entire neighborhood seems to be, no we are not. My favorite interruptions though were during the one I borrowed from Creative Bible Study Lessons, Why Christian’s Are Like M&Ms. One child just kept blurting out “I don’t get it. We’re not full of chocolate.” Another child couldn’t stop asking, from the second he saw the bag of M&Ms, if he was going to get to eat them or not. But the best was the little one who kept turning in a circle saying, “but I don’t see the M?” I actually wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get off the stage fast enough.

Yesterday, the pastor preached on Acts 15, when Paul and Barnabas parted ways. You can read the sermon at fpcep.org. It is a fitting topic for the departure of staff or the end of the year.

Saying Goodbye

How many of you have lived in El Paso your whole life? (Have them raise their hands)

Where did you live before? Say it loud so everyone can hear.

This time of year for our family is referred to as PCS season. If you are familiar with the military you know what that means. If not it simply means a large portion of our community is moving. This week three houses on our street had moving trucks in front of them and one of the houses behind us as well. People come into our lives for a season, and then sometimes they or us have to move on.

We are in the middle of saying goodbye to our very loved Children’s Pastor- Ms. Vanessa. We had her goodbye party last week, she’s house hunting this week so she isn’t with us, but she will be back next Sunday to say her final goodbyes and so we can give her her Shalom blessing.

Do you know what a Shalom blessing is? It is a way of wishing the person we are saying goodbye to the many blessings of shalom which include: peace, health, prosperity, happiness, well-being, and all the good things you can think of.

Sometimes we don’t get to keep the people we love. They have to move away. At the end of the school year we have to say goodbye to friends and there is no guarantee they will be in our class next year. But that doesn’t mean we don’t love them, that we aren’t still friends. It just means sometimes we have to let go.

I wrote a book, and in that book I talk about my kids a lot. One of the stories I shared is about my boy and his having to say goodbye to a neighborhood friend. He was upset and decided he didn’t want to stay home and play, he wanted to ride around with me doing boring errands all day because he didn’t want to look at that empty house across the street. So as he was sitting in the backseat he asked for my phone and he turned on the GPS and started telling me step by step how to get where we were going.

Why do you think he was doing that?

Do you ever feel lost in your emotions when people leave?

Do you ever feel like if someone would just let you pick what was for dinner or what tv show to watch that everything would be better? That’s because when things happen in our life that we can’t control we try to hold on to what we can. We get emotional and don’t know how to express that. It’s ok to be sad. The Bible says that even Jesus wept when his friend died. It’s ok to miss your friends or your family when they go away.

People can never be replaced… but do you know what’s going to happen to those 4 empty houses in my neighborhood? New people are going to move in! And we get the privilege of meeting new exciting friends and having adventures with them that we never could have imagined.

How do I know this? Because in November some neighbors I really liked moved away and we were sad. But how many of you have met xxx who comes with us most Sundays and Wednesdays? He moved into that house and quickly became a part of the family. So much so we tell people he is Griffin #4.

We don’t always understand why we have to say goodbye to people we love, why they move away, but we do have to trust that God has something amazing in store for them and also for us. Sometimes that amazing can only happen if we say goodbye first.

Let’s pray:

Dear God, I thank you for your love and mercy. Help me to always trust in You in every area of my life. Bless all of our friends with your shalom. Amen.