Hey friends! I’ve got just a short post for you today. Its a snippet I wrote yesterday and want to share with you. I’ve been thinking a lot about being a good friend lately. I can be a perfectionist sometimes, I want to be a perfect friend. And I’m not, but something God has been showing me is that I don’t have to be.

Without further ado, here it is. 😉

The perfect friend. She wished she could be the perfect friend. Because, her friends, she loved them so much. They were so brave and beautiful. And so, hurting.

            And if she could, she would gather them to her in a second. She would hug them close and heal their wounds and give their broken wings the strength to fly across the sky. She would take away the tears and ease the ache and be there. She would do it all in a heartbeat. But she couldn’t. Because her wings? They were broken too. She too, was hurting and her arms couldn’t carry the weight. She couldn’t save them. She couldn’t fix it.

            But she was never supposed to. She wasn’t the Chef. She was the spoon. And a spoon trying to do the work of the Chef, it doesn’t go well. She was trying to save them all and she sobbed into her arms because she couldn’t. But she was never supposed to save them. She was never supposed to heal them. That wasn’t her job. Jesus was the only one who could do that. She was never made for that. She was made to hug them. She was made to listen. To not leave. To love them and make them laugh and to cry with them. She was made to be broken together with them. And to turn them to Jesus. The One who can heal wounds. The One who does save lives. The One who is strong enough to carry the burden. The One who made our wings in the first place; the One who knows how to mend them.

            And knowing that, that she didn’t have to carry all the burdens, that Jesus had her friends, that therefore they were okay, that Jesus is the Great Mender, the Great Healer; knowing that made all the difference. It made her able to hug them and pray for them and be a friend. Not a miracle worker, not a savior, a friend. What she was supposed to be.

            And even when it was hard to believe it, she knew without a doubt that her friends would be okay. Because, what our God holds, He will never, ever let go. And when we look back and see only one set of footprints in the sand, questions tearing through our hearts: why God, why did you leave me to walk alone? When we look back and see one set of footprints, it was never that He left us alone. It was that when our feet failed, He carried us.

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; one belonging to him, and the other to the Lord. 
When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life. 
This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. 
"Lord, You said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. 
I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me. 
The Lord replied, "My son, My precious child, I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you. 
  ~Anonymous 

Keep smiling dear readers! Keep hoping in Jesus, and keep being friends.