Papa's little girl is very lighthearted at the moment. I feel like skipping! My heart and spirit are frolicking in a meadow that is filled with a great variety of flowers in bloom. It is my friendship garden.
We had overnight visitors and the little girl in me is still giggling and rejoicing over the treat!
A very real treat! One of my dearest friends was accompanying her daughter on a visit to a few prospective colleges in New England and was passing through Connecticut. We had the joy of being a stopover before they headed home to Maryland.
We all have a variety of friends. Papa knows that we need different people for different seasons and situations in our lives. Kathy is an all-season, all-situations friend. These are rare finds.
If we lived near each other we would be spending time together on a very regular basis.
What is so special about our particular friendship?
This is one of those friendships where you can pick up right where you left off no matter how long between visits. We are on the same wave length, we both love Papa very much.
She knows me, really knows me with all my foibles and still loves me, and I her. My friend does not have any unrealistic expectations of me; neither do I have any of her. We make ourselves available for one another and take the time to listen, really listen.
Now and then I have thought that a good friendship was developing where the give and take would be balanced, but often it seems I end up in the teacher, counselor role with no reciprocation on the other person's part.
Not with this friendship!
But there is something else that truly sets our connection apart from most others. We always take the time to pray together. The recognition of the privilege and power of prayer marks our friendship.
We first met when Kathy was brought to my home to take part in a prayer group. She and I both were very pregnant and the women all gathered around us and prayed for us and our, yet to be born, babies.
That very night I went into labor and Jonathan was delivered a little after midnight. Kathy gave birth to her David two days later. The story of the very close friendship of David and Jonathan is related in the Old Testament. They truly were kindred spirits.
Instead of our sons, their mothers entered into such a relationship!
Much has happened in the past nearly twenty-seven years in both of our lives. We have both been learning to recognize the music of our God's grace in our lives, which is the product of those experiences.
When we have the opportunity to get together it simply heightens the beauty of the music!
Reading through the Old Testament book of Nehemiah brought me to the third chapter. Some might think it a very dry bit of reading, as it listed those who were helping to rebuild the particular parts of walls of Jerusalem. Papa caused me to see people who rolled up their sleeves, interacted with one another and shared their struggles and their joys through this experience.
That is how it is suppose to be. Whatever He puts before us, we can roll up our sleeves and get involved; shoulder to shoulder while sharing in the joy of having the Living God in our lives.
That is what Kathy and I endeavour to do!
In Ecclesiastes it speaks how two can help each other and even keep one another warm. It then speaks of a cord of three not being easily broken. When the living God is the cord that binds your friendship, the connection will grow, as your connection with Papa grows.
Doesn't that just make you want to skip with joy!!
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