by Sandy Kirby Quandt

Recently I was thinking about friends I knew during my high school years. Two in particular stood out because of what they wrote to me.

Karen and I were best friends. You’d call us BFFs today. We shared much of ourselves with each other during our senior year of high school and vowed to stay in touch, despite the fact our roads after graduation would take us down different paths. Unfortunately, we never saw each other again once we hugged good-bye the day we held our diplomas in our hands.

While in Senior English, we studied Jean Anouilh’s play, Becket, about King Henry II and Thomas Becket’s friendship. We both fell in love with it, got mad at Henry for his treatment of his friend, and wept for Becket.

I don’t need to see my yearbook to remember the inscription Karen wrote…To Becket, from Henry. I was humbled she considered me a person who stood up for what I felt was right, and  who didn’t compromise my beliefs.

A friend I met at church camp signed his letters using a phrase from Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations. Referencing the conversation between Joe and Pip, Paul always wrote, “Ever the best of friends.”

Paul and I ran into each other several times through the years at various conventions but eventually, lost contact. Yet I know, were we to meet today we’d still be ever the best of friends.

As a writer, books are important to me. I enjoy reading them. I enjoy writing them. While Becket and Great Expectations are classics, and I appreciate them both, there is one book that is far superior, and has many more memorable lines in it.

Yep. I’m talking about the Bible.

So I’m wondering…

Do we include scripture references when we speak or write to others, the way my friends included literary works when they wrote me? Do our friends know the stories from the Bible which thrill our hearts? The ones that bring us joy? The ones that reduce us to tears? If we quoted a verse, would they know it’s importance to us?

Jesus is our true BFF. He shares our hurts, our joys, our failures and our successes with us each and every day. He will never harm or destroy us the way King Henry did Becket. Jesus will never abandon or reject us the way Pip did Joe. Jesus wants us to keep in touch.

Our Savior loves us with an undying love. He wants us to stand up for what is right. He longs for us to be ever the best of friends.

Are there friends from high school you are still in contact with? If you mentioned something from those days, would you feel like you were there all over again?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Leave a comment below. If you think others would appreciate reading this, please share it through the social media buttons.

 The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. Jeremiah 31:3 (NIV)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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