Over the weekend, my husband and I took a drive to meet up with some good friends for a dinner, halfway between where we live. We’ve been trying to do this somewhat regularly, and it’s inevitably a wonderful evening.
This time, we realized that it’s been 18 years since we all met and became friends–our first week of college. That’s half our lives. And after being a bit staggered at that, we took a few minutes to laugh and just be glad that we’re still friends. That even though sometimes a year has gone by without us getting together, as soon as we’re back in each other’s company, it’s like it’s only been a few weeks.
Certainly, I still have friends I love from my earlier days, from childhood. We too can get together and it feels like it hasn’t been as long as it’s been. But let’s face it: we all also have friends for a season. Or friends in particular circumstances. We have work friends that don’t translate into best friends. Or maybe we have church friends that we never see out of church. I have writing friends that I only ever talk to online now and then, occasionally meet at a conference–we get along, we have a great time, but that’s all it is.
I’m so grateful that God brings people into our lives as we need them. Some for a season. Some for a particular reason. Some forever. I pray that I can be the kind of friend each of my friends need–again, sometimes just in glimpses, sometimes steadily and forever.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
You got to see M&K – jealous!! 🙂 I have a similar story to yours and Stephanie’s, with my nonfiction writing partner, Colleen Duggan. (Shameless plug: her first book, Good Enough is Good Enough, came out in April from Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame’s popular press.) I used to blog, way back when I was a new mom, and she wrote me out of the blue to introduce herself and to say she thought I was awesome for writing fiction while my newborn napped. After such a complimentary first email, how could we not be friends? 😀 Her friendship has been one of the best blessings of my life.
God put my best friend and I together over 36 years ago. I was going through a very difficult time in my life at the time and was in a desperate need for a friend. I was also a very new Christian! She and I have talked many times about how God has brought us together. WE been through many things (good and bad) together in our years of friendship. I can tell her anything and know it won't get repeated unless I give her the okay. We don't get a chance to spend as much time as I'd like but, it's just like you said, you can be apart for a long time but, can still pick up from where you left off. I don't have enough words to say about my best friend. I do thank God everyday for putting us together like He did.