I walked in to the offices of a non profit organization over 10 years ago. I came in to take over their accounting and I didn’t think much farther than getting through the interview that day. I never thought I would hang out that long or that one of my best friends in the world would come out of this place. You live a lot of life with people you work with. Good thing, because it forged a relationship that I need. She is the steady, reliable, loyal, will not take no for an answer, loving friend that I value beyond any words. She has given me many things in addition to her friendship. Gifts, trips together, concerts, long talks. She also has given me countless cards. She just does it randomly. These two came close together. I didn’t even do anything to prompt it. She just knew to encourage me. The first one is really meaningful and it added so much to my day. The second came recently. She just knew. She always knows. At some point, our hearts and souls arrived at the same place. I think it is like that with every beautiful friendship/relationship. Your heart and soul merge somehow. Converging like that makes the bond unbreakable from the outside. It is a trust and love thing. I think that is why it doesn’t happen easily or with just anybody. It also costs because you can’t go deep like that without investing. So, if I feel like this about my valued friends, Jesus had to have dove much deeper. “Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:10-15 But depositing a part of yourself in another comes with risk and no one took a greater risk than Jesus. He went ahead and laid down everything without a guarantee that anyone, not even his 11 closest friends, would respond to His Love. I want that reality to affect me. Mainly because I don’t readily give myself away in profound relationships. I will help and serve and I feel compassion, but I always stop short in order to avoid the risk of heartache. Pain is a possibility. I don’t have many people that I have given my heart over like that. But the ones I have, I have reaped many times over my investment. Even in the hardship and trouble. Somehow, He uses it to do great things. I think He is letting me know that I can be less discriminatory, less protective, and less wary, now. He loved without hesitation, and He continues to. It is very possible that in Him, I can also.
Love Always
