Silver & Gold

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! ~ Psalm 133:1

It is an interesting conundrum of my life: the people I get along with best are too far away to see often. We spent the day yesterday with old friends of Aaron's, and these people would be very good friends if we lived closer. We have several groups of friends like that...those rare people that really understand you, those people you can see after years have gone by and it is as if you just left them yesterday. I wonder why the physical distance? Is that common - does God place people around us that are a different fit to stretch us and help us grow? Or is it just that seeing someone infrequently allows me to focus on our similarities, and the differences go unnoticed?

I am thankful for these golden gems of friends, a special, treasured glint of reflection off God's face and the true communion He designed us for. Imagine one day in heaven, when all dear saints have this kind of easy friendship! Sometimes I picture life like a strand of gold, each of these moments of beauty and friendship and good strung out on my piece of time like a yellow pearl...Cancer makes you think these things, and hold these moments close to your heart, a priceless treasure that you are newly and acutely thankful for.

The sun and stars that float in the open air,
The apple-shaped earth and we upon it,
surely the drift of them is something grand,
I do not know what it is except that it is grand,
and that it is happiness,
And that it is not something which by luck may turn out well for us,
and without luck must be a failure for us,
And not something which may yet be retracted in a certain contingency.
The light and shade, the curious sense of body and identity,
unspeakable joys and sorrows,
The wonder every one sees in every one else he sees,
and the wonders that fill each minute of time forever...
~ Walt Whitman, 1855, A Song of Occupations, Leaves of Grass