Friendship is a blessed thing – offering many graced moments.  Having moved many times throughout my growing up, long lasting friendships were not something I knew much about.  Just as I would make a friend, we would move and leave the new friend behind.  There was always the opportunity to make a new friend wherever we moved.  And, I did that, only to leave them behind at the end of our time in that location.  So, friendship that lasted years was not something I knew much about.  I had many friends, but only for short periods of time.

Then I settled and began to raise a family and lived in the same location for over 30 years.  The true friends over the years were the ones with whom I could talk, laugh, cry, explore new hobbies, attend classes, or just share the quiet moments of our life stories.  These friends were “comfort stations” on life’s journey, easy to be with and always fun.

Recently, after moving from that house of almost 30 years, a friend came to visit us in our new surroundings.  It was a graced moment – a graced week.  We talked and laughed and visited the sites.  We walked the National Mall and toured the Native American and Natural History Smithsonian Museums.  We went out to the countryside to view the wonder of the changing colors of the landscape through the Shenandoah National Park along the Skyline Drive.  The beauty was magnificent and the sun through the colors of the trees was something only God could paint.  Our friendship was renewed and strengthened.  Many graced moments, indeed.

Our friendship with God can offer us the same delights.  For no matter where we live, where we have moved or what we are doing, God always desires to be friends with us.  It was St. Theresa of Avila who said if we know how to talk to a beloved friend, we know how to talk to God in prayer.  God’s friendship is waiting.  Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we can talk to God in prayer.  It is a friendship like no other.