The Gift of Friendship

Last week I wrote about new life – physical life like my great-nephew who was born over the weekend, and spiritual life demonstrated by the baptisms at our church yesterday and last Sunday.  Today I want to talk about older life – the joy of God’s gift of friendship, and especially with those we have experienced a lot of life with.

You see, on Saturday I had the privilege of getting together for an afternoon with several of my longtime friends that I went to school with.  Most of us have been friends for about 45 years, and we have actively been sharing each others' lives annually for the last 20 of those years!  There are usually about ten of us that get together, depending upon schedules.  Some have started to move away from our area, so our numbers are getting smaller; but most make an effort to attend our luncheon every year. 

God is not only gracious in giving us friendships, but he is also creative.  Not all of my friends are Christians, and not all of them are choosing to walk with God on a daily basis.  But our history holds us together, because we all came from the same small town and the same junior high and high school.  The memories we share still bind us together in ways that wouldn’t necessarily happen if we met each other for the first time today.  Some have careers, some have been homemakers.  Some travel worldwide; others are homebodies.  Most, but not all, are mothers.  Some, but not all, are grandmothers.  Most have endured both hardships and times of great joy.  All are vital, contributing members of society within their own areas of expertise and spheres of influence.   

We were friends originally because of our similarities.  Some played sports together, while others were involved in musical endeavors together.  Most were churchgoers, and most were high achievers.  We all ate lunch together most of our junior high and high school years, depending upon our different class schedules.  Today we still eat lunch together – just not nearly as often!  Our shared history holds us together; but our conversations today are more interesting because of our differences and the different paths we have taken.  Catching up on each others' lives each year is a wonderful privilege and a gift from God that I cherish.  I hope you have a few longtime friends that you still share life with, as well as new friends.  I’m not a very socially-oriented person; but I’ve learned to appreciate the few true friends God has given me.  Can’t wait until next year, girlfriends!

New Life

This is not the time of year when people usually think about new life.  Spring bursts forth with all kinds of new life, and Fall is the season where a lot of things die.  But today I am thinking about two types of new life that don’t just happen in the Spring.

God does not limit his creation of new human life to just one season.  I am thinking about this today because it is likely that my first great-nephew, Oliver, will be making his entrance into our world sometime this week.  As the first baby born into my family’s side of our nephew’s family, this imminent arrival brings extra excitement!  But I think God will rejoice even more than we will, because he knows that every creation of a new life is “very good” (Genesis 1:31).

The second type of new life that God does not limit to only one season is new spiritual life.  I’m especially thinking about this today because we had baptisms during our church service yesterday.  I can usually count on tearing up during a baptism; but yesterday I was more emotional than normal.  There were two people scheduled to be baptized, and I was blessed to know one of them and to have watched her journey to new life through contact with the women of our church.  But when our pastor gave the invitation (after a sermon about baptism) to anyone who wanted to be baptized right then and there, it was very exciting to see one young teenage girl decide that God was speaking to her and feel his Spirit telling her not to wait.  Gracie was baptized in the clothes she came to church in, and there weren’t many dry eyes in the house!

Second Corinthians 5:17 says this: “. . . if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  The birth of a new baby is almost always a time of rejoicing – the mystery of partnering with God in the creation of new life and the hope and promise of what the future will bring in this child’s life.  But, according to what Jesus said in Luke 15:10, there is even more rejoicing in God’s presence when a new spiritual life is born.  And the key to the development of both types of babies is in being given and receiving proper nourishment.  Milk (and the milk of basic Biblical truth) is the right type of food to properly nourish babies (and baby Christians).  But to continue to grow healthy and strong, both types of new lives eventually need solid food so that they can learn to distinguish between good and evil, either physical or spiritual (Hebrews 5:14).

Today I’m rejoicing about Oliver and Taylor and Lindsey and Gracie – new lives, new creations!  But I’m also praying for God’s continued work in their lives through his Word and those around them resulting in future maturity – physical and spiritual.  And I’m asking God to show me the new lives that he has placed in my sphere of influence that I can help to grow “in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52), because “just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others” (Romans 12:4-5).