“It’s going to be ugly,” I said. “The Kiwi family isn’t good at goodbyes, you know.” I was trying to prepare Grace, our oldest, for my reaction when we would have to leave her for the first time at Academy before we headed off to the mission field.

It’s probably an understatement to say that leaving family has always been difficult for me. Leaving New Zealand for the United States at age 18 is a case in point. I distinctly remember gathering around a lunch table at the Auckland airport for the last few moments with Mum and Dad and my two sisters before walking through security. Joyful laughing transitioned into happy chuckles which turned into sad sniffles which turned into heartbreaking sobs which turned into . . . I’ll spare you the rest of the details. Anyone looking at us would have thought I was a sheep headed for the slaughter! Fortunately my daughter is a little more composed than I am, and our farewell went off surprisingly smoothly. Rather than the sloppy, mushy kind of goodbye, she opted for the, “Okay, see you guys later, bye!” variety.

Despite my discomfort with goodbyes, I have discovered they are good for at least one thing—reevaluating what is important in life. When all is said and done, what could be more important than family? So how does the overseas missionary come to grips with leaving something so important and precious behind? As I have wrestled with God over this dilemma, He has taken my mind back to the widow of Zarephath. The man of God made what seemed to be an unreasonable request: “Give up the last of your flour to bake me a cake.” To obey would seem certainly to hasten death for her and her son. But it was in her very act of giving everything to God that she and her boy were preserved. When we choose to obey God, we aren’t really giving up anything. Rather, we place our most precious treasures in the hands of the only One who can keep them safe!

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