Friends Without End

Time passes ever so quickly. Recently, I was reminded of the gift of Christian friendship. Twenty-plus years had passed since I had seen my friend. We had grown up, married, had children, and watched them marry; we had lost spouses and parents and weathered our fair share of bumps in the road. After catching up, there should have been little left to say, so why did twenty years seem like only yesterday? How did we talk with such ease and feel a natural flow within our conversation?

1 John 1:7 reminds us that the feeling that time has stood still in our relationships with other believers is possible when we are "walking in the light." Our fellowship with our heavenly Father is the foundation that creates a bond that draws others to us who also walk with the Lord. Giving ourselves to Christ keeps us in continued fellowship, connected by grace with special friendships that transcend time.

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another..."

1 John 1:7

Bell, Stacia. "Chapter 29." When the Menu Is Manna New Beginnings, 1st ed., Outskirts Press, 2018, p.89

Comments

When People Make Life Hard

"Well, are you going just to stand there or do something?" It was my first year of teaching, and I had learned quickly that the cafeteria was a no-talking zone for anyone. Students were expected to enter in silence, eat in the same manner, and exit without a word. So, staring at the horror on the child's face, the disapproval of my principal, and my feet surrounded by the mess on the floor, from the dropped tray, I froze. It didn't appear that either of us would experience any mercy. Sometimes, people just make life hard. It's not a new problem; it's an ancient one. Exodus chapter 5 has much to say about the perils of dealing with difficult people. In this chapter, the Israelites are enslaved people in Egypt under a Pharaoh who is quite a taskmaster and knows nothing about his slaves except that they can make many bricks every single day. Things get pretty ugly when Moses and Aaron are sent to free the Israelites from their bondage. Pharaoh had no intention o...

Christian Chameleons

As a teacher and administrator for the past thirty-one years, I have learned the powerful messages that are hidden within the pages of children's literature. Even as an adult, I identify with the character in Eric Carle's book, The Mixed-up Chameleon. It's the story of a young chameleon who just wanted to be like everyone else. So, unsatisfied with who he was on a particular day, he took on the likeness of every animal he met. Satisfied for a while, he later realized he had assumed the characteristics of so many different animals that he could no longer find himself. As believers in Jesus Christ, isn't this our story at times? We come to believe it is permissible for something or someone other than God to shape our character. In doing so, we become Christian chameleons and compromise our convictions for comfort to be like the rest of the world. Staying true to our convictions and beliefs nowadays is tough to do! The world cries out to us through media, music, literatu...

Hello Sixty

R ecently, I had one of those significant birthdays, another milestone, a wake-up moment that reminded me that I don't have forever left - at least not this side of heaven. I don't want to make too big a deal out of skipping from one decade to the next, but how did time pass so quickly? One minute, I am graduating from college, only to realize I now have four years left until retirement. In an instant, it seemed I had shifted from a new mother to a grandmother. Just yesterday, I was driving kids to the pool, hosting sleepovers, packing for camps, and shopping for school supplies. Still, nowadays, I rarely step foot in a pool or participate in any of those other activities. As I reflect on all these changes that came so slowly at the time yet now appear to have happened in a mere flash of light, I am tempted to make an argument for time travel. Not really, but things have changed - r...

When the Menu is Manna

Search This Blog