Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been a delightful two days.

Delightful, as in FULL OF DELIGHT.

I went over to Plano to stay with my parents, and work for a couple of days on my aunt’s house in a continuing effort to settle her estate. So, while I was over that way, I made dinner plans each night with a different old friend, both upon whom I had not laid eyes in years (and in one case many years).

Over dinner, both times, as I gazed at each beautiful face and listened to the catch-up stories we all have to tell, there was one word that kept repeating itself in my mind…

Why?

Why did we wait so long?

One friend lives very far away, and our lives have led us on divergent journeys since we were two little girls, singing songs at Vacation Bible School, so the time makes a little more sense. But the other? Well, she lives an easy drive away, yet, we have let life get in the way of making it a point to get together, allowing virtual friendship to be a flimsy substitute. Certainly, I’m thankful for social media, as it’s allowed for reconnection, but it doesn’t hold a candle to sitting across from a person, live, with no photo filter, or the incredible warmth of a hug that has waited for years.

My aunt was surrounded by friends who all thought they were her best, and loved her to that end. There is evidence of those friendships all over her house. Gifts, years and years of cards and letters, and prayer journals filled with petitions lifted in honor of the names written there in her beautiful hand. Her calendars were jammed with appointments for coffee, lunch, dinner, and bridge with them, intentional displays of the value she placed on those relationships, and reminders to me that friendships don’t just keep themselves going. They require effort and priority in our lives, in return for a rich depth that not much else can provide.

How long has it been since you’ve seen an old friend? Too long?

Reach out today. Make a date. I promise you’ll come away realizing that those who have known you the longest are often the ones who remember all the words to your heart’s song. New friends are wonderful, but treasure the old. Because, well…one is silver and the other gold.

Two are better than one… ~ Ecclesiastes 4:9 ESV