My Friend

My friend.

I think of my beautiful friend… her green eyes… her dark hair… her perfectly beautiful smile.  I see her face before me.  I can hear her voice… her laugh… the funny voices we would use with each other.  I can see her throw her head back and execute the perfect ‘Snoopy cry’… that cry he bellowed from the depth of his doggy heart.  She made me laugh.  My friend for twenty years.  Twenty years…
I didn’t know when I met her… she was already at middle age… middle age at 20 years old…

her green eyes

They sparkle at me from photos… photos that span over twenty years of a friendship.

I think of the countless memories… the memories flood back to me now.  Things that I had forgotten to remember… in the hurry of life.

I think of the phone call… her voice thick with fear… the diagnosis… a nightmare.  The pink ribbons.  The pink ribbons a banner for so many.  The pink ribbon so personal now.

I think of her fight… for years she fought.  Her husband, her babies… they all fought.

These last years, these fighting for life years… this is when we talked the most about God.

She didn’t complain… she showed amazing grace in these fighting years.  I smile remembering that she and I complained so much more during other times in the twenty years… the times that there was much less to complain about.

I prayed and prayed… we all prayed and prayed…

I remember her words…

it will always be okay

the good news, the bad news, even when I die…

it will always be okay

I think of the faces of her husband, her daughter, her son, her sister, her dear daddy… the faces she had loved.  The amazing grace in these faces… strength given only by God.

I have wondered why… I have felt the pain of her absence ~ like a punch in the stomach…  I have heard them say, those whom she loved so dearly,

We will see her again

I have never been more sure of that truth… the God truth… we will see her again…

I gaze out my window, the blur of tears clearing my sight… to see the little red cherries… a gift from her.

The little ornament dangling in the sunlight… the red and green sparkling in the sunlight…
her green eyes… His red blood 

Shed for us.

We will see her again.

I placed my hand on her last earthly bed… I whispered… I will see you again…

it will always be okay

John 16:22

So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.