Today we are visiting a friend whom my wife first met when they both worked for World Vision in 1964. They have faithfully kept in touch over those years although, for the most part, they have been separated by 3000 miles and for ten years, 6000 miles. It got me thinking about friendships.
Friendships are invaluable. You have heard the old adage that says you don’t miss something until you don’t have it anymore. That is true with friendships. We moved to British Columbia 18 months ago and we quickly realized that, although we love being close to family and would not change that, the importance of the friendships we had built in other places became a reality. Not only are they missed as friends and people, it is almost as though we left something of ourselves behind. We keep in touch but there is nothing to compare with face to face contact.
When we think of all the people that have come across our paths down the years, we realize how impossible it would have been to retain contact with everyone. We often wonder where some of those wonderful people are now. I must admit that Facebook had helped to reignite some of those friendships. I have spoken to, and renewed friendships with, so many people from our past, something which never would have happened had I not made the effort to start using this form of social media.
We are social beings and all of us enjoy real true friendship. It is well worth the effort to keep those friendships going. So send the email, make the phone call, write the note to those friends who love you and care for you. Don’t lose touch. It’s harder to begin new relationships than fan the flame of the more established ones. It is hard to replace good friends and you never know when you might need them. So to all our friends we left behind we say, “We love you” and to new friends we hope to make, we say, “We look forward to that blessing!”
