...Of Lifelong Friendships

I turned 50 last month.

Before you switch off, wondering if this is another "oh no, I'm 50, where has my life gone?" blog, the email is not about me. At least, not in that way.

Rather, its about a birthday present I received. Probably the most special present I have ever been given.

In 1995 we opened our home to an overseas student, who came to stay for a year. Johanna was from Finland, and she was 17. She spoke 7 languages fluently, and though she came to New Zealand partly to help her English, she spoke it better than most native-borne 'kiwis'. She stretched us as a family in so many wonderful ways. When after a year she boarded her plane home, it was truly like losing a daughter. I think we grieved her 'loss' far more than we ever thought possible.

Yet life moves on.Over the years we kept in some kind of touch, and from a distance we 'watched' Johanna grow from a sparkling and creative teenager - our surrogate daughter/ niece - to an amazing woman. We heard of her career, her loves, her first child, her marriage. All of it meant something to us. Yet somehow, because she lived so far away, and was not really our daughter, it happened in a back part of our minds: someone to be remembered on a quiet Winter's evening.

And then: It came. A gift for my fiftieth birthday. A book; but such a book. Not just any book. A book of memories and dreams. A book that brought 1995, and memories from the intervening years, flooding back. A book of photos and thoughts from the heart of this marvelous young woman - older now than we were when she first came and made herself a part of us.

A book that reminds me that when we connect with a person nothing truly separates us from them. Time, distance, life changes. All become part of the relationship, all shape the relationship, all enrich that relationship, if we will let them.Friendships do last. They make us the people we are today.

My beloved and Johanna's special book!

This is why the Bible is such a special book. It too is a book of memories and dreams, from One whose words shape and enrich us. There may be days - even years - when God can seem very far away. But, just like this wonderful book from Johanna, when I open His book the special times with God come flooding back, and I am young again.

We have these two precious books, from a creative woman and the Creator God. And we shall never be the same again.