Last year, I made a short trip to the Tai-Kadai Project to witness the baptism of a friend named March. The visit was far too short. As I was finishing packing, my Tai-Kadai friend Der sat down and with a forlorn voice said, “I’m going to miss you.” The sadness in her tone made me pause, and I sat down next to her. She placed her head on my shoulder and asked, “Why do we have to live apart?”

I have been asked that question more times than I can count by people I have made deep relationships with who live on the opposite side of the world from where I am now. Still, I struggle every time to give a satisfying answer. Perhaps because there is no satisfying answer to the question of why we have to say goodbye to people we love. Something inside of every heart just knows it’s inherently wrong to have to say goodbye. Whether it’s distance and circumstances that separate us or having to say goodbye to a loved one nearing death, the time together is never long enough. Goodbyes are unwelcome between like-minded brothers and sisters whose hearts beat as one.

I’m sick of saying goodbye. There are so many people who don’t know the love of God, or about Jesus’ victory over sin for them, or about the heavenly family that awaits them. The only way to make an end to goodbyes is to carry the gospel to the utter ends of the earth so that Jesus can return. When He comes, we won’t have to live apart anymore.

• Twitter