on friendship

Jan and I were invited to a pool party/dinner party at our friend Bob's new flat. Also in attendance were 3 other female teachers from the American School and another young family from our church. Some were British, some Canadian, some a mixture thereof, some transplants from Zimbabwe to America, some Malaysian, and some good ol' Midwestern Americans. Some older, some younger, some married, some single, some divorced, some widowed. It was a beautiful mix of ages, nationalities, cultures, vocations, experiences, and vocabularies!

It looked a lot like the Body of Christ.

I have so come to love the people gathered together tonight. I love their warmth. I love their openness. I appreciate their humor. I respect their experience. I admire their willingness to invest despite the fact that most of us have spent lives in transient communities, always meeting new people and saying goodbye to others (and then there's me...about to experience it for the first time).

It was a great time to enjoy conversation, pizza, wine, and the 3 lovely children in our presence. We swam despite the threatening rain clouds and I had a blast playing around with the kids in the pool.

It felt a lot like goodbye, too.

In that bittersweet, let's-go-out-on-a-good-note-and-be-grateful-for-each-other kind of way. I think I've figured out (though it should have been obvious) that goodbyes are a time to edify, to encourage, to build up, to bless, and to send off in faith. Parents of college-bound children, take note. The international community has got it right. This is how we say goodbye. With love and laughter. With help and support. With a long list of contact numbers and friends all over the globe. With the promise of seeing one another again, even if it's not in this life.

I am at peace. Amen and amen.