when i was 17 years old, i went to college. i was almost 18. but not 18 yet. that amazes me. and frightens me. and explains a lot of my dumber moments... i can justify a lot of silliness (a nice word for SIN) by recalling my extreme youthfulness... okay, so really i can’t justify any of it by that excuse, but let’s go on to some of my brighter moments...
because there was this ONE thing that i did so right. on decision that i was so smart about... my choice of my two best friends in college. my two college roommates. robyn and dina.
i don’t know how or why we all clicked. we are all different and all the same and even though over 20 years later we still “work” as friends... and they have in their own ways helped me to become a better woman. a bit more in the image of Christ. they are both remarkable in their own way. much more interesting, funny, and better than i could ever hope to be. and they have always been willing to shine their light on me and to let me shine. they have shown me what it means to truly follow Christ. through the good times and the hard times.
robyn and dina took an awkward 17 year old stupid girl (that would be ME)... and they made me look smart and like i knew what i was doing. and they have made me better and wiser and wittier and grateful. extremely grateful for their friendship and their constant presence in my life. they have grown more and more beautiful to me as they have gotten just a teeny tiny bit older. i mean they were so cute in college, dressing alike in those denim miniskirts (just had to work that one in since i was being overly sappy). and they have just gotten cuter... and robyn has gotten more “robyn”er and dina has gotten more “dina”er in all the best ways.
they make me look smart. for rooming with them. for friending them. and for sticking with them.
but really it wasn’t me at all.
"In friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another...the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart.
But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances.
A secret master of ceremonies has been at work.
Christ, who said to the disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,"
can truly say to every group of Christian friends,
"Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another."
The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out.
It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others."
— C.S. Lewis
"In a perfect Friendship this Appreciative love is, I think, often so great and so firmly based that each member of the circle feels, in his secret heart, humbled before the rest.
Sometimes he wonders what he is doing there among his betters.
He is lucky beyond desert to be in such company.
Especially when the whole group is together;
each bringing out all that is best, wisest, or funniest in all the others.
Those are the golden sessions; when four or five of us after a hard day's walk have come to our inn;
when our slippers are on, our feet spread out toward the blaze and our drinks are at our elbows; when the whole world, and something beyond the world, opens itself to our minds as we talk; and no one has any claim on or any responsibility for another, but all are freemen and equals as if we had first met an hour ago,
while at the same time an Affection mellowed by the years enfolds us.
Life — natural life — has no better gift to give. Who could have deserved it?"
— C.S. Lewis (The Four Loves)