Friends

Our current weekend sermon series on Friendship set me to remembering friends I've known over the years.

In elementary school Judy was my BFF (best friend forever). She and I walked home from school nearly every day. Since she lived closer to the school than I did we arrived at her house first. We would hang out and talk. She told me things about the workings of the human body that I knew could not possibly be true they were so far-fetched and bizarre. A few years later, I found out she knew what she was talking about.

In high school Mary Jane and I hung out. She was the only person I knew whose parents had gotten divorced. She lived with her mother and older sister, a college student. It seemed very strange to talk to her about her mother's boyfriends and hear her mother ask what she should wear out on a date.

In college my new friend Jane called me "Will" a shortened version of my maiden name. From Louisville, we would take off after classes on Friday, or before classes sometime, and drive to her home in a beat-up VW beetle. At some intersections when the engine would die, I would jump out and unstick the butterfly valve to get the thing going again. Her mother and dad were loving and welcoming. Jane eventually was asked to leave the college. I won't go into the reasons.

A current friend was telling me about friends she hangs out with that she has known since elementary school. They continue to meet and be involved with one anothers' lives. I can't imagine knowing anyone that long. I don't see my own sisters often enough to really say they are friends. The two of them have put up with me for decades. I appreciate it but we don't share little secrets like real friends. And they live states away.

Then there are Jill and Linda, and Amanda my navy commander friend. We have shared such great times. Trips to China, Australia, Greece, Ireland, Turkey and a wild rapid ride down the Niagara River (you can guess with which friend). But each of them lives states away.

We have lived here only five years so I am blessed to have some five-year friendships but they seem so new and untested in many ways. It takes years to get into someone else's life.

I do have a 30-year friendship but she lives in Tennessee. However, if I needed something or someone I'd call Debi. Like the Carole King song, "You just call on my name and you know where ever I am, I'll come running to see you again. Winter Spring Summer or Fall, all you have to do is call and I'll be there. You've got a friend."

That's what I'm thinking about today.