Healing friendship
This past weekend, my son Trey was involved in presenting a musical called Big River that he and a cast and crew have been preparing for the last several months. They performed the musical 4 times in a really cool theater in Knoxville called the Bijou. It was such a blessing to see Big River and to celebrate Trey's joy and hard work as well as be invited to a really hard story of slavery and redemption. I loved it.
On Saturday there was a show at 2:30 and then another at 7:30. Lea and I made plans to attend all of the shows for the weekend and so on Saturday we made a day of it together. We dropped Trey off for his call time at the theater and then Lea and I wandered around the Market Square farmers market. We walked and talked, sweated and savored time together. We then went to see the 2:30 show. It was so special to see Trey and his friends tell the story. After that show we enjoyed a simple dinner in a Bistro right next to the theater and then jumped right back in line for the 7:30 show. We enjoyed seeing friends at both shows before and after and then arrived home around 11pm after the shows were done. As Lea and I thought back over our day, we shared with each other how much we had enjoyed being together for the whole day enjoying each other and the events of the day. It felt like a really special gift to be with my best friend for the day. Friendship with Lea has changed me. Friendship with Lea has brought healing to me. How you might ask? Stay with me.
In the Bible book of Mark chapter 2 verses 1 through 12, there is wonderful story about a man who was not able to walk. Jesus was teaching a crowd of people in a house. The man who couldn't walk had four friends who decided to do what they needed to do to get their friend to Jesus so that he could encounter Jesus himself. The plan they came up with was to tear and dig a hole in the roof of the house where Jesus was speaking at and to lower their friend down into the thick of the crowd where Jesus was. Their actions were creative, persistent and sacrificial.
When Jesus saw what was happening it says that He saw THEIR FAITH, the faith of the man's friends and He didn't start by healing the man's body, BUT FORGAVE HIS SINS and HEALED HIS HEART! What a powerful delivery that ended up being for those four friends and the sick man. Later, kind of like icing on his healed soul, Jesus also healed his body.
The 4 friends carried the man to Jesus and his heart and body were healed. Now back to Lea. How is friendship with Lea healing in my life? Lea carries me to Jesus also. She talks to God (prays) for me and about me and she lives her life in a way that honors and pleases Jesus and as I watch her, it affects how I want to live my life in response to what I see. The friends got their friend near the ONE they knew he needed to see. Lea does the same thing with me through how she lives her life around me. Lea can't save me, but she knows the One who can and does all she can to help me encounter Him along the way. That is how friendship can be healing. Pointing another person to the HEALER (Jesus) through words and living is an act of healing!
You never know how God might choose to use you in the life of another person that will change that person's life forever. Read that again and take it in. That's pretty exciting to think about even this day, whom you might encounter with an opportunity to carry them to Jesus. Nothing is wasted in how we relate to one another.
There's more.