The Center of the Circle

Today’s guest blogger picks up on the subject she addressed in her meditation published for February 16:

With the subject of friendships in mind, I’ve been thinking of all the help-mates God has put on my path. I’ve been blessed with a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, each of whom I can see in hindsight came to me with their own unique purpose to fulfill in my life. At no time was this was more apparent to me then when I became caregiver to my mother several years ago.

That was a difficult time. Mom’s illness was lengthy and cruel, and caring for her was all-consuming. I had only one focus—to care for my mother as best  I could.  Everything not absolutely necessary had to be placed on a back burner. That included friendships. With my nine-to-five job and a family and household to care for, I simply had no time to pursue a social life. Though my friends tried to be supportive, eventually even a cordial chat on the phone became too much of a strain on my precious reserve of energy. Still, I missed the companionship and the give-and-take of those special relationships.

Yet just as our heavenly Father knows what we need in our life before we even have the chance to ask (Matt 6:8), God also knows who we need in our life. God supplied just that for me in what I considered the most unlikely of places—my office. One by one, new employees started joining my department: the young woman whose corny jokes and zany antics kept me laughing when I often felt like crying; the retired-RN-turned-clerk whose keen insight into my mother’s condition and medical treatments helped me navigate that road; the compassionate supervisor whose invaluable understanding sprang from his own experience as a caregiver for a chronically ill family member. Knowing that these folks would be able to support me in a way my other friends were not equipped to, God placed these individuals around me in just the right place, at just the right time. I felt God’s love for me through each of these special friends; and without them, I suspect I would not have come through that experience as well as I did. Many years and several job changes later, we still keep in touch.

Knowing what I learned from that time, I try to remain mindful of my God-directed purpose in the lives of those around me so that I, too, may help others as I was helped. That is the essence of friendship. As 2 Corinthians 1:3 tells us, “The God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . comforts us . . . so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received.” God has continued to enlarge my collection of friends and helpers. And that circle grows with God, our truest friend, standing firmly at the center.

-- Monica A. Anderman