True Love

My best friend is not of this world. But he makes himself available to me at all times. He has heard all my stories, been with me through the good, bad, ugly, and has dried my tears. He has been my comfort when everyone else has left me.

I met him for the first time when I was eleven. I had heard a lot of stories about him before then, though. That meeting was at a big convention center. Almost everyone there had wanted to rush over and meet him. I had to stand in line and wait. And the meeting was brief. I read his letters for a while. He was old and I was young, so even though they were interesting, I didn't fully understand the meaning.

Years passed and I didn't stay in touch, although he had tried to connect. I had avoided him. You, know...a lot of things were going on in my life, and I didn't want to be bothered. I'm sure he would have given incredibly good advice. I wanted to figure things out for myself. He backed off.

But we did run into each other a few times. I don't think it was accidental. I think he had meant for it to happen. Just the feeling I got. It was way too coincidental to have been otherwise. I still can't prove that.

Later, I would find out that he had been at all my important life events.... way in the background, though. He had never pushed himself on me, but I felt the pull. I always felt I had someone strong watching over me. God knows, I needed to have someone watching over me. I was making a mess of things on my own.

It wasn't until I was forty-one and heartbroken over life that I had called him. He answered immediately. He wasn't angry that I had avoided him, left him out, or flat out ignored him for all those years. Instead, he lovingly just listened as I spilled my heart out to him. I could really talk to him! I found his quiet strength holding me up. Maybe I was going to live over this mess I had made, after all?

He came to the hospital with me and stayed while they removed the cancerous uterus. He made no judgment even though it had been my own lifestyle that had brought on the disease. That touched me to have someone look at me like that. You know, through a lens of love. And it made me want to be a better person.

I could be vulnerable with him. I told him I was afraid, and I didn't want to die. I had children that needed me. I couldn't leave them alone. And his eyes told me that he understood. And his arms held me as I cried.

Besides being so kind, he was also, wise. He told me there would be some things in my life that I couldn't change, that wouldn't make sense to me, and there would be things that hurt me. But he did say that he would be there through all of those times, and he would show me what I needed to learn.

The surgery took care of the disease. It never came back to haunt me. And my friend had been right about life. But I was learning to see life in a different way. And I knew I wasn't alone. I never had been. When I think about the grand scheme of life, that boggles my mind. I had been brought to this very day for this very moment. And all the things that had meant to harm me, only helped to get me there.

And he was in the center of it all. He had walked before me to remove stumbling blocks at my feet to keep me from tripping. Or he had put something in my path so I would be persuaded to turn and go another way. He had been watching over me all this time! I hadn't dreamed it up.

Now, when life gets scary or overwhelming, I know my friend is going to be with me and this time I will listen more readily. Even when the storms of life threaten to overtake me and I'm tossed around by the winds coming my way, I just hold on to him. He has even quieted me enough to fall asleep beside him during those times.

I wish the world knew the goodness of my friend like I do now. I know that is his heart's wish, too. He tells me that. He is my best friend, JC...

One day I plan on living in his home that is far away from earth. He tells me there is a big banquet waiting for us (me and all his other friends, too.) It's a happy place there, no tears, no sorrow, no death. I can believe him because he has never lied to me. It makes the worries of this world seem small.

I just wish that everyone could come eat at that table. It's there. And you are welcome!

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It boggles my mind that some try to make faith/loving God/being loved by Him...more complicated than this. It's just another relationship. Humans make it complex, but it's truly simple. This is what true love looks like.