Shade Tree Wisdom 3/9/08

The Preacher writes, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. If one falsl down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and there is no one to help him up.” Ecclesiastes 4, 9.10.

There’s something therapeutic about friendships. Solomon, I believe, put his finger on it. He wrote, proverbs 27,17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens the wits of another”. That’s just the way I work. When two people work at something, one thinks of something the other may have overlooked, or one spots a weakness in a plan that a little adjustment will straighten out.

So friends are important, cherish those you have and make others.

No, this is not a lecture on friendships. But I had the strangest feeling this morning that I know very few people. New faces, people whose names I don’t know. And I used to know the family history of some 450 families, from grandma to the youngest grandchild. And could walk into a room filled with people and everyone had a welcome hand and a smile. Ruth and I have been members of this congregation for nearly a quarter of a century. Of course it is here where people do move often, and new faces replace them, and then, we are no longer involved in the day-to-day life of the church. Yet there it was.

And yet, when I had that heart blockage a while ago, suddenly people came, just to let me know they cared, some prayed, others just had a warm greeting and expressed concern and offered help. And it was heartwarming.

That’s what our Church offers us, isn’t it? Fellowship, friendship. St. Paul commented on this in his letter to the Philippians. 1,3 “I thank my God every time I remember you, because of your partnership in the Gospel from this day up till now.” V.5.

Strange, in this day of easy instant messaging, we no longer seem to be together. Have you ever read letters written, and saved by a wife left at home when her husband went to war? The longing, the expressions of endearment, the rich use of words to describe the hardship, the longing expressed to be home again? We don’t often experience that do we.

Solomon is right when he speaks highly of “there is a friend who sticks closers than a brother” Prov. 18,24. Jesus said to His disciples, “I have called you friends, for everything I have learned from the Father I have made known to you” John 15,15.

No, this is not a lecture on friends, but I do urge you to make, and keep, friends, and cherish them. For “One friend sharpens the wits of another". There is nothing quite like the fellowship and the friendships generated in God’s own Church.

GPD 3/9/08