Special Friends

The past four days we have had friends with us staying in the guest house. They are dear friends who we have known for many years. Actually, in missionary circles, especially at the International Mission Board, they are pretty big deals, or were, since like us they are both recently retired. They had recently sold their home in Richmond, packed up and moved away from us to be closer to their children in Alabama. They are currently homeless, living with one of their kids, looking for a house in the miserably hot conditions of Birmingham—something I could have warned them about had they cared to ask my opinion. Anyway, on a whim, we thought maybe they could use a break so we texted them an open-ended invite to come up and stay with us a few days, to escape the heat and relax. They have visited us here before but it had been a while. They accepted in world record shattering time.

Despite their celebrated reputations, the hummingbirds were unimpressed.

Lucy was nonplussed.

But we had a blast.

As you can see from this photograph, Leigh Anne didn’t have any trouble navigating her kayak. She and Pam took many adventurous trips around the lake together. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of Gordon. My one and only regret from our time with them over these last four days was that I didn’t have my cell phone camera with me when Gordon attempted to get into his kayak to go out with me on our first fishing trip. That photograph would have been pure gold…Gordon, wobbling, wobbling then getting dumped into the chilly waters of Quantabacook. Despite the absence of photographic evidence, I will always have the memory! While I freely admit that he caught more fish than I did, At least I remained fully upright in my vessel at all times.

If you’re lucky and live long enough, God will bless you with special friends, the kind who you wouldn't hesitate to call in a crisis, the kind who can be counted on to say “yes” to a last minute spur of the moment idea. These are the people who don’t care how you’re dressed, the kind that you never need to impress, or be impressed by…the kind of people who let you be yourself. 

Get yourself some friends like this…