4 Days To Christmas
More than a decade ago, I ended a horrid relationship with a friend who had an abusive father, resulting in her father threatening my life. I was 13 then, with childish mental faculties and experience, I was frightened and cried every night for what seemed like forever, and I prayed every night for a friend, a real friend.
There was this girl in my school, she sat by the same tree every lunch and had the exact lunch every day: turkey sandwich and a carton of chocolate milk. In a world full of junior high cliques, she welcomed everyone and anyone to sit with her at that tree. I sat with her then, and the same girl used to run besides me in PE (I hated PE at that age!) and encouraged me to finish running the mile every Friday morning. My prayer was answered, and we became fast friends. In high school we were inseparable. We used to drive around in her little 1989 Toyota round and round my neighborhood, just talking. We didn’t need any fancy entertainment, we didn’t need to “do” something together for fun, we had each other for company, and our conversations were faucets that could not be turned off. We talked mostly about God, the universe, and everything else under the sun. Our world views and mindsets were crafted under much imagination and we shaped each other’s worlds into one which evil do not win and the good always triumph. Our worlds were such that we believed in the goodness of people, and thoroughly denied the state of nature crated by the cynical Hobbes. In college she went away to Washington. At first I thought she was going to Washington D.C. and only knew differently when she drew me a map of the entire United States. I kept that map, it’s still somewhere in the boxes from when my parents moved. We sheltered each other from much of the turmoil and drama of high school, and the resulting naiveté is no doubt a product of our friendship. She’s in seminary now, heeding God’s call on her life. More than a decade later, we are still friends. Seeing each other only a few weeks out of the year, she is still very much my best friend, and irreplaceable. It is four days before Christmas, and I will forever be thankful of this precious answer to my prayer.
More than a decade ago, I ended a horrid relationship with a friend who had an abusive father, resulting in her father threatening my life. I was 13 then, with childish mental faculties and experience, I was frightened and cried every night for what seemed like forever, and I prayed every night for a friend, a real friend.
There was this girl in my school, she sat by the same tree every lunch and had the exact lunch every day: turkey sandwich and a carton of chocolate milk. In a world full of junior high cliques, she welcomed everyone and anyone to sit with her at that tree. I sat with her then, and the same girl used to run besides me in PE (I hated PE at that age!) and encouraged me to finish running the mile every Friday morning. My prayer was answered, and we became fast friends. In high school we were inseparable. We used to drive around in her little 1989 Toyota round and round my neighborhood, just talking. We didn’t need any fancy entertainment, we didn’t need to “do” something together for fun, we had each other for company, and our conversations were faucets that could not be turned off. We talked mostly about God, the universe, and everything else under the sun. Our world views and mindsets were crafted under much imagination and we shaped each other’s worlds into one which evil do not win and the good always triumph. Our worlds were such that we believed in the goodness of people, and thoroughly denied the state of nature crated by the cynical Hobbes. In college she went away to Washington. At first I thought she was going to Washington D.C. and only knew differently when she drew me a map of the entire United States. I kept that map, it’s still somewhere in the boxes from when my parents moved. We sheltered each other from much of the turmoil and drama of high school, and the resulting naiveté is no doubt a product of our friendship. She’s in seminary now, heeding God’s call on her life. More than a decade later, we are still friends. Seeing each other only a few weeks out of the year, she is still very much my best friend, and irreplaceable. It is four days before Christmas, and I will forever be thankful of this precious answer to my prayer.
posted by J @ 8:45 AM
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