My Friend for a
Season
By Susan Klein
“A friend loves at all times.”
Proverbs
17:17a ( NIV)
Sitting across from a dear friend at the coffee shop, I was
burdened with conflicting emotions. Here was someone I’d known for nine years
but as more of an acquaintance than a friend. Only through a recent tragic
event in her life had our relationship taken on deeper roots. I was savoring
the sweet sharing time we were having, yet simultaneously dreading the thought
of having to say good-bye to her. She is moving to another state in a couple of
weeks.
More times than I care to count, this seems to be the case in my
life. God brings me into sweet fellowship with someone, then He removes her
from my life. While technology makes it easier than ever to remain somewhat
connected, it doesn’t replace actually doing life together. Like most women, I
immensely value good, long-lasting relationships. God knows this about me, yet
He often seems to have other plans for the people He places in my life. Perhaps
you’ve experienced how it feels to invest in a deep friendship, become
transparent and real, and share in the messiness, only to have that person
abruptly uprooted and deposited elsewhere. It can be gut-wrenching!
While steeping in my silent pity party, I asked God why He’d
allowed for us to become such good friends so late in the game, knowing it
would be short-lived. His answer came while she and I prayed together. As she
spoke to God, thanking Him for placing me in her life at just the right time -
- a time when she needed a friend who could truly understand and empathize with
her circumstances - - I realized how selfish my perspective had been. This
friendship wasn’t about me and my needs, it was about how God had equipped me
to provide for a need in her life at a time when she really needed it. It was a
divine appointment, by God, to be a friend for a specific season of this
woman’s life.
Keeping that perspective has helped me to look back at other
“friends for a season” in a refreshingly new light. I am grateful for the
opportunities I’ve had to shared myself with each of them and blessed to have
received their investment in me, for however short a time it may have been. I
also have the comfort of knowing that while our time here on earth is but a
breath (Psalm
39:5), we will all share eternity together in the presence of One who is
greater than a friend!
GOING
DEEPER:
How
are you investing in the lives of women God has in your life right now?
FURTHER
READING:
Susan is a We Women Bible
Study Coordinator and one of its teachers. She and her husband Mark enjoy
tutoring and working with inner-city youth.
