Pinked Perspective: July 2013

It's been 30 years, 31 to be exact. We met the very first day of Kindergarten when she provided the assurance I needed to let go of my mommy's ankles and join circle time. She moved away with her family when we were twelve, and I was left to figure out the middle and high school years without my best friend at my side. Fortunately, there was always summer, and it could never come soon enough. Whether we were vacationing at Disney or Lake Powell or just visiting in Annapolis or Atlanta, for a month every summer I knew what is was like to have a sister.

The college years flowed into the graduate school years, and it became harder to spend the time together. We married in the same year and took on the anticipated role of maid of honor for each other. Within a year of one another, we gave birth to our firstborns and started the blessed journey of motherhood. With so many obligations, so many distractions from our friendship, it seemed only natural that we would reserve summer and vacation as our time to reconnect, only now it is about two families and eight people connecting.

She has made the extravagant sacrifice of rising early on vacation to take in the sunrise with me. We find our place in the sand and immediately I see the clouds. I desire so much for God to meet me and my friend here this morning. We wait. We pray. Then as though they have been given their cue, the clouds that stood in the way begin to move. The glory of the Sun is unmistakable yet again.

I realize that this is a divine moment, a reminder that we have traveled many years as friends, and God has been faithful. He has sustained our bond, and most likely without Him, we would not be sitting on this beach together this way. It is also a call to continue on, to bring our families together, to make memories, and pass on this legacy of lifelong friendship.

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. (Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10 NASB)

An Instagram recap of our vacation to Topsail Island, NC