Girlfriends

I know that girlfriends was God's idea. I have just spent five whole glorious days with two close friends. We have sons the same ages. Our boys played high school football together. We shared moments of anxiety over sports injuries, teenage romances, college choices, and later danced at their weddings. Now we share information about their careers. Our sons now live with their wives in our same small hometown they knew as teenagers. Together, we celebrate them and the amazing young men that they are.

For five days, we have reflected on the phases of life. We laughed together, rode bikes, swam in pools, and enjoyed our friendship. Sally Clarkson expresses it much more eloquently than I can in her blog (www.wholeheart.typepad.com) in her posting, "I take joy; I need friends." As I get older, I find that the things we look for in others are so rich and wonderful. We have learned to cherish our parents, both those left and those who have passed on. We encourage one another. We push for physical fitness and optimistic outlooks. We hold hands and pray, and mean every word of it.

One morning, two of us were riding our bikes and we stopped by a gift shop. In it I came across a notepad with the following quote across the bottom: "Cherish the little things, because one day you realize the little things really were the big things." We shared a moment when I gave them each a notepad. With tears in our eyes, we agreed that this celebration of friendship was one of the "little things" that we will cherish.

The Secret Place

This morning I experienced a small taste of the meaning of the Psalm 91:1, "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High abides under the shadow of the Almighty." With the aid of noise canceling headphones, I listened to a playlist of beautiful worship music, and there I was overcome with the presence of God. From the first sounds of "Lord, You're Beautiful," I was compelled to get alone and fall to my knees. I found myself weeping from somewhere deep within my soul. Eventually I rested on my bed and lifted my arms up to the One whose love I was seeking.

I had the mental picture of our little grandchild as he sees me approach him and he reaches up to me with happy expectation. What a precious picture of how God yearns for us to want Him to "pick us up" to where He is! I thought of another verse that I have struggled to understand, Ephesians 2:6, "For He raised us from the dead along with Christ, and are seated with Him in the heavenly realms-- all because we are one with Christ Jesus." For the first time, I think I have a glimpse of what that means. I felt that God had indeed reached down and picked me up into His presence. For an hour and a half I didn't think about earthly responsibilities, or my puny needs; I was simply enraptured with His presence. I also began to understand what the scripture means that says our God is a jealous God. It doesn't mean that Almighty God is some egotist who has to be admired; far from it! It just that when I heard the first words of worship, I felt the Holy Spirit drawing me aside where we could be alone, just as we as human beings desire sometimes to be alone with the ones we love the most so we can we experience intimacy with them.

Feeling the calmness that settled over my soul, it came to me how important it is for us to teach our children to learn the benefits of this practice. They need to experience at a young age the peace that comes when they develop the habit of seeking a secret place with the Father. The practice of escaping from the noise and sensory stimuli that bombards them constantly will cause their mental and physical attributes to develop as well as their spiritual. What a wonderful concept to think of teaching our children to draw aside for a period of time to get to know the God of the Universe. And He made us a promise. He said if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us! He also said that if we seek Him, we will find Him. It's not a game; it's a promise beyond our comprehension!