Celebrating Friendship

God loves us through our friends, sometimes giving us a taste of His unconditional love for us.

I got to celebrate having girlfriends this week - not once but twice.

My very best friend called me last week. We have known each other since childhood- having been "forced" by our mothers to play with each other as very young children and then becoming very close during our high school years. Back then we spent hours together: picking fruit each summer, walking each other home (endlessly) in the evenings, riding bikes to Avondale Dairy for ice cream, going shopping, sleeping over and talking every opportunity we had.

She lives in Calgary now and she and her husband travel extensively across the country on business so we don't get many opportunities to spend time together.

This past week she was in Richmond , and we spent two wonderful days together. We went shopping, walked in beautiful Minoru Park, had long meals together, traded stories and photos of our grandchildren, and shared our joys and concerns.

I can find no words that adequately express my delight at having her as my friend.

Thank you, Laurena for your friendship and the wonderful days we spent together.

My only regret is that although I carried my camera with me the whole time we were together, I only once remembered to use it. I guess that gives you a good idea of how much ground we covered in those 2 days.

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When I got home Thursday night, I just had time to unpack and repack before

joining 5 girlfriends on Friday for a weekend at Little Shuswap Lake.

These are also very dear friends - some of us go back at least 35 years while others of us have bonded more recently. We all attend the same church and through ladies events, Bible studies, scrapbooking and shared relationships have become good friends.

It is remarkable to us that though we span some 20 years in age,

we never feel that much talked about "generation gap".

As we laughed, played paper and card games, soaked up the sun and shared the making and eating of fabulous meals,

we celebrated the most important thing that binds us together:

Our love for God and our faith in His Son, Jesus.

I am grateful to each one of you for gracing me with your unconditional friendship.

A special thank you to Jan, who invited us to share their gorgeous lakeside retreat. She always comes up with creative ways to entertain us, is unfailingly generous and keeps us laughing.

The memories made this week will warm my heart for a lifetime.