Auf wiedersehen, and vaya con Dios

Sorry to mix languages, but these two seem appropriate.

I believe I owe you the deepest and most sincere of apologies, though: I'm so sorry that I waited to nurture our friendship until I could see your departure approaching on the horizon, that I basically wasted the majority of your time here that could have been used to forge our friendship much sooner.  But I'm also convinced that it all happened in God's good time, and I'm so joyfully amazed at how you've become one of my very closest friends so quickly.  And I'm pretty pleased with myself for managing to follow through when, however many months ago now, I suggested that I'd be sure to cherish every available moment with you and your family before you left.

I'm hopeful for our friendship, for many reasons.  I know the chief one should be our shared faith, but can't help feeling a little more tangible comfort simply in living in the 21st century, when we have convenient ways of staying in close touch with one another.  I'm encouraged to learn that I've become someone who can have such a close friend without longing to make that relationship what it should never be, and I owe you my thanks for allowing me to discover that.  But mainly, I believe that you're going where God would have you, to continue to nurture you and your family.

Still, that hope won't keep me from being sad that I won't be able to hug you, to see your understanding smile or feel your reassuring pat on the back when you know I'm feeling challenged.  I know that this move is a lot more disruptive for you than it is for me.  Still, I can't help thinking about times I know I'll miss you, of how I'll be reminded of your absence.  Those reminders all involve wonderful parts of my life that will still be wonderful, but will now be missing someone who helped make them even more special.  I won't list the ones I've already thought of, but they are many.  You've touched so much of my life.  Yet my overarching feeling is not sadness, but gratitude for you.

I hope we get a chance to spend a few moments alone before you go, in which perhaps it will be okay to shed a tear of thanksgiving for the priceless gift you are to me, and to be reminded that you will always remain my dear friend and sister in Christ.