I commend you

"So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” - Act 20v32

There was a wonderful old comedy television programme back in the 60s. I think it only ran in the States. It was called “The Andy Griffith Show” and it was about a small town sheriff and his bumbling deputy. In one episode the sheriff’s son accidentally kills a mother bird and spends the rest of the show raising the baby birds. At the very end he has to free the birds. After he does so the sheriff and his deputy are talking it over. Barney, the deputy, says, “Well, the cage looks kinda empty.” Andy, the sheriff responds, “Yeah, but don’t the trees look full.”

Any parent, teacher, or spiritual leader can identify with the emotion. We work with, teach, and pour our lives into people, but the day comes when we have to let them go.

Paul faced a similar situation in Ephesus. After years of working with them the time had come to say farewell. Paul had the right spirit though. He knew how to let them go. “I commend you to the Lord and to the word of His grace.” Paul had done all he could do.

Letting people go can be challenging. As Opie, little boy in the programme said, “What if they can’t fly?” However, Paul, and us, have more than Opie had. Opie had to depend on the job he did. We don’t have to do that. We can depend on what Paul did – he had a God who loved them even more than he did. He had God’s word which was perfect.

We are all going to face times when we have to “let them go.” We don’t have to just let them go and hope for the best like Opie did – we have an Almighty God and His perfect word to depend on. Our life might be a little empty without them, but won’t the world look full?