When They're Doing Well

Devotion for the week...

A friend of mine took her oldest child to university the same weekend we took Zach back. When I messaged to check on her that Sunday, when I knew they were heading home, she said it was so hard to leave him and that they were having a very quiet drive home. I remember driving home after leaving both Aiden and Zach for the first time, so I understand how she was feeling, and I assured her leaving them the first time is the hardest, and that it gets  easier after that.

The first time we leave our university students behind, there are so many unknowns. Will they get homesick? Will they be able to keep up with their classes? Will they like the program they've chosen? Will they make friends? Will they be happy? Once we know they're doing well, though, leaving them doesn't feel like a big deal anymore. In fact, dropping Zach off this time was easy because I knew how much he was looking forward to being back there. Knowing he's happy there makes me happy.

That made me think about John writing to his friend Gaius. John wrote, "Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth" (3 John 1:2-4).

You can feel the lightness in John's words as he writes to his friend because, thanks to a report from other believers, John knew Gaius was doing well. We love to know that the people we care about are doing well. My mother-in-law has said she doesn't need to have long phone calls from her children (all in their 40s and 50s), but she loves to just hear their voices (and now see their faces, thanks to video calls), so she can know they're okay.

In our own lives, we can go both directions with this. Is there someone who made an impact on our lives and who might love to hear how we're doing now? Maybe someone who isn't on the same social media networks we are, so they don't ever see the updates we share? How could we connect with them and let them know we are doing well? A phone call, text message, or even an in-person visit could bring great joy to them just as the believer's report of Gaius' wellbeing did for John. And on the flip side, is there someone we'd like to connect with, to find out how they're doing? How could we make that happen?