Puzzle Pieces

Friends Give Us Abundant Life

God created man to live in fellowship with others. It is so much fun to do things together, like have coffee or go to dinner, run a race or go see a new movie. Friends are important to us, from the very beginning of our lives.

For the past 8 years I have asked God to put the puzzle pieces of my life back together. With my father being a pastor, we moved so many times, I went to three elementary schools, a middle school and then to a private high school. While in college (3 different ones)  my parents moved two times. I always envied my husband telling stories of the same kids he had grown up with, developing a loyalty and sense of "work everything out" by living in the same place all of your life, a place called "home".

I would make great friends and then move away, wondering what ever happened to them. I always said that when I had a family we would stay firmly planted in one place so that our kids would have a place they called "home".

A year ago I got on Facebook. One by one, God helped me find my friends from elementary school in Ohio. I was reconnected with friends from junior high and my high school that went out of business just after I graduated, my youth group, my friends from church camp, the majority of the kids I went on my first mission trip to the Dominican Republic, my college friends and roommates where I met Paul, my college friends from Taylor, my friends from our first real home in Cleveland before we moved to Arizona, my friends from my corporate job at Ernst and Young, our first friends in Phoenix.

Each person I call friend, was/is a part of my life. One of my dearest friends says there are seasons for every friend that you make; some are for you to help them, some are to help you, some only last a short time, some last a lifetime. Each friend has significant meaning for memories that you share, or events that take place. Everyone makes up our fabric like a tapestry. With pieces missing it was an incomplete picture and although there are friends that I may never see here again on this earth, I pray that I see each and every one in heaven. There are some that I know for sure love and serve Jesus. There are others that I just don't know where they stand. I pray that each and every one will experience the love of Jesus here on earth and that one day we will be reunited.

God provides for all of our needs. When we change locations, stages in life (getting married, having kids, education changes, change churches) God provides new friends, opportunities to grow and learn from being part of a community. Friends make our life richer through the good times as well as the bad.

God cares enough about me to want me to be whole, even my smallest desire to be reunited in some way with people from my past...He never wants us to stop growing so He continues to place new people in our lives to sharpen us to be more like Him..