Today I lost a friend. He was battling leukemia. The news came as a shock because I was just asked to pray a few minutes before I was eventually informed that he didn’t make it. He was young. He didn’t seem the likely candidate for the sickness; let alone death.
Although I know he is now in heaven with Jesus still I feel the grief of someone who just lost a dear loved one.
Yet the curious thing about this is that, although he was a friend and we did spend time together back in college, he wasn’t really what I’ll call a dear friend. I knew him but we weren’t really close. Under normal circumstances we will never really meet again unless there’s a reunion of sorts.
I don’t even really follow his Facebook feeds.
Which leads me to ask: of my thousand plus friends in Facebook, how many are people I will really see again in this lifetime? Facebook calls them my friends but I know for a fact only a handful fits the description. Which begs the question – what are friends really?
I’ve had people who were close to me at one point in my life. We shared so many things you would think we would be unseparable. But life happens and we both spread our wings and flew to where our destinies will lead us. As time passed and life took its natural course, we lost touch save for the occassional chit chat in Facebook.
Then I have friends also who I may not really have been close with – merely shared bits and pieces of myself. But as the years passed, the tidbits accumulated and soon we find ourselves in constant contact 10+ years down the road.
Friendship is a curious thing for me. Time in this world is so finite to meet all the past friends who’ve been a part of my life and to meet new people to forge relationships with.
If you’re that friend who I spent an incredibly close season of my life with but now life has drifted us apart, I want you to know how grateful I am for that season we shared. And though we try our best to meet, I think for the moment we have to accept the course that life leads us to.
If you’re that friend who, despite the years, I’ve seen and continued to share bits and pieces of my life with I’d like to think you’re a friend who’s here to stay. For despite the seasons of our lives, we’ve managed to always bridge the gap and find, whatever precious little time we can spare to connect.
And if you are that friend who, as of this moment, the one I share my life with; the one who knows so much about my day to day life, then I hope that life will lead us to remain friends for years to come despite the separate directions we may take in the future. And if life chose to bring us apart then know that I treasure every moment we now spend together.
I don’t think it will be physically possible for me to reconnect with all my friends in this lifetime. I have to accept that majority I may no longer really see. Before, when Facebook was still new, I would post in each friend’s individual wall a holiday greeting followed by a follow-up chikka question. But as my friend list grew that became insanely impossible.
But there is still hope. If one day, when the time comes, I’ll see all this friends I care about in heaven. Where forever exist, where time becomes immaterial and where there are countless opportunities to catch up, relive old memories and forge new ones.
So friend, I sure hope I see you in heaven someday. Getting there is easy. It’s a matter of accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.
But then again, this is just my belief. My faith. I cannot force you into it. And if you know me well enough, I will never force this on you. Yes I want to see you in heaven but I won’t force you to believe what I believe.
I can only share what I know. It’s still your decision. But know this – I love you no matter what you choose.
Grateful, too, for you!