Last week we held the memorial service for LaVern. Her best friend, Hazel, lie in the hospital hoping to learn what caused the labored breathing she was experiencing. Today Patty and I went by to visit Hazel. She received a call from another friend, Faye. These three ladies spent a great deal of time at Lake Eufala. Many a day was spent fishing. LaVern was likely the fisherman of the group. Faye recently lost her husband, Jim. From her hospital bed Hazel helped Faye wrestle through what it was like in
those days and weeks following the loss of a spouse. Hazel looked up at Patty and I and said, “Friendship is special. That’s what friends are for.”
Too often we forget our need for each other. This was a reminder of the ways in which God graces our lives – with friends. These friends expressed what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth letting them know they have the privilege of comforting with the kind of comfort they have received.
Andrew is a new friend of mine. He lost his father last January. Circumstances kept him from seeing his father before he died. Tuesday evening another friend’s father died. Scott could not get to Oklahoma from Florida in time. He too missed the opportunity to speak and hear from his father before Dave died. Andrew and I were talking and he offered to help someone he did not know work through the emotions that accompany the experience of losing a father without getting to speak or listen before death came. There
may be some ways these two young men get to help one another and they don’t even know each other.
God’s grace and mercy eclipse our understanding. The Lectionary text from Ephesians 3 calls our attention to the wonder of the love of God. May these find God’s love immeasurable as they live on while their loved ones have gone to be with Jesus.