November month 2009 will always be remembered as the parallel valleys of intensive admin and teary farewells. While the cold, hard logistics of an international move were being forged on the anvil of practicality in one valley, friendships were simultaneously being bade farewell to in the neighbouring valley. The days consisted of swinging from tasks to goodbyes and final meet-ups.
The ink was drying on our final chapter in Cape Town. The last page of the chapter was turning. I tried to cram as many people into that period as I possibly could. In each farewell a photograph album of memories played through my mind. Each meeting was another internalization of the realization that our paths were about to diverge. Maybe to never cross again in an every-day, same-city sort of way.
I saw that friendship is a precious thing. Friends are the jewels that stud one's crown. They are the gift of God; one of His finest. Some are for a time. Others are for a longer time. Yet others are for a lifetime. The first are to be enjoyed. The second are to be celebrated. The third are to be guarded and defended at all costs.
Friendship exists at the point of equilibrium. Friendship is that space where emotional supply and demand perfectly meet with equanimity. One is a person precisely because one has friends. The personableness of God is lavished upon the world through the multiplicity of friendships. Friendships sound in God, in His nature and in His person. When we have friends we somehow touch the very definition of God. Each friendship is a part of knowing Him completely. They are no substitute for Him but He has allowed them to be indispensable to us.
Each final handshake, each final hug, each final embrace brought a silent prayer to my heart. It went something like this: 'Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. I am a pilgrim on this earth. Permanence we will only know in heaven. Temporary sacrifices here will mean glory there. This is a Kingdom of friendships. Kingdom friendships demand that we give that what we cannot keep to gain something that we cannot lose. Lord Jesus, bless us both as we say farewell. May this moment make sense one day in the hereafter.'
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