One of my best friends passed away last week. Today I took his name out of my address book. Now only his wife’s name appears before that last name. When I pressed the delete key it seemed so wrong. In an instant it was like he wasn’t. But he was. He still is. At least in my mind he is. We cannot just delete someone from our lives. I am what I am because I knew him. Each of us is a piece of our friends. This man was superman. There didn’t seem to be anything he could not fix. He was a helper. One morning at 3 A.M. when I needed help I knew I could call him. I did and he came and he helped. We don’t just delete someone like that with a keystroke.
I recall the last time we were together we argued about, of all things, politics. How stupid that was! For one thing arguing never changes anyone’s thoughts about something. For another thing politics are a stupid thing to argue about since none of us knows all the facts that are involved. We argue in ignorance. Now how ignorant is that? How I wish the last time we were together we had prayed together. We had not.
This phase of our lives, our pre-eternity phase, is so short. It is too short to do anything other than to learn what is important. What is important is to value friendships. No one can have too many friends. It is impossible. It is important to use the limited resources we have to help make our friends lives better.
I love that Jesus declared us to be His friends. What is grand is He will use His unlimited resources to make our now and our eternity better.
Written by Roger Bothwell on January 22, 2015
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org