A Biblical View of Friendship

Last night I went to St. Louis to Southeast Salutes honoring distinguished St. Louis alumni. The alumni director asked me to attend and I thought that I had been gone away from the event long enough that it would be fun to attend. I kept thinking of people I wanted to see --people I had loved for so long and who were such a part of my 26 years as Alumni Director. And it was amazing to see people and feel that feeling of love flow so openly. In this picture, I am with Mike Stroot, Annette Heller, Glenn Mehroff and holding my hand is Pete Gallagher. I never let them off the hook; if I was coming to St. Louis for a meeting, I let them truthfully know that I needed them there! And they were always there for me --no matter what.

I came home and fitfully unslept until 4 the next morning thinking of so many people who came and filled a "place in my heart". I have been the luckiest of people. One after another, people came up and told me how much they missed me, how I had been there for them in some way, and we held on to each other at parting not really knowing if or when about the future. It was a night of fun memories for me.

Friendship has always been big in my life. I treasure my friends -- they are not a disposable commodity to me. I learned to value friends when I was child and Harriett Goodin and I sat in the Primary room at the church in Charleston and studied David and Jonathan. Harriett said then, "Janie, we will always be David and Jonathan to each other". And we are! But hearts are not made to be contained; they are made to expand and take more people into their chambers.

I Samuel 18:1 "And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul."