from the rector
November 2009
Sometimes new thoughts come at you from many different directions. Certainly I have had many occasions to think about friendship from new angles this year.
First there was our wonderful 40th high school reunion in August. To be with a group of people with whom you shared the most formative period of your life – and to realize that all the petty jealousies, cliques, and in/out group foolishness of high school was by now utterly dead, and you could just enjoy being together with nothing to prove.
Then there was getting onto FaceBook – where I was quickly forced to face the limits of “friendship”. I simply don't have the time and energy to be a true friend to everyone I'd like to be a friend to.
Then there was the remarkable experience of the events surrounding Geoffrey and Anna's wedding. Good friends gathered from far and near – many of whom had never met each other. Seeing friends whose only connection before was knowing you become friends of each other – as joys go, that's hard to beat.
And then there was this past Sunday, when at coffee hour we heard, totally surprised, a beloved voice in a Tidewater Virginia accent we hadn't heard in 12 years – and found ourselves hugging dearly loved seminary friends. (They would have walked into church except for the rockslide!)
That place with many rooms that is being prepared for us, the kingdom of God, heaven, the place that our Lord is leading us to – I do believe it's all about relationships, with him and his Father and each other.
Living forever is a great thing, of course. But the great thing about it is not just going on forever and ever. It's about having the time to be friends in the full sense we never could be in this life.
Time to get over the old divisions between us and realize how ridiculous they always were in the big scheme of things. Time to give our friendships the time and attention they deserve. Time for our friends to become friends with each other.
It's nice to talk about living forever. It's even better to realize that there is something worth living forever for.
Yours in Christ,
David Garrett