January 14, 2014

Reality.

I sat in stunned silence, trying to wrap my mind around the quiet announcement. Taken aside before I could get comfortable, the news threw me into a vortex of emotional thought and hard pondering while the women around me went on with the conversation of life.  Tears escaped my eyes one-by-one and I swept them away with my fingertips, trying hard not to cry in such a public place as Ulta. The finality of that quiet announcement struck me hard.  My friend of fifteen years was forever gone... just like that.

Natalie was a casual friend; someone I only saw once every four weeks. She was loud and she was crass, her hard exterior a complex cover-up for deep hurt and emotional pain.  If you listened carefully, you could hear all about it in the stories she told.  And although my heart broke for her, Natalie made me laugh. Her sheer exasperation with anyone or anything was comedy in itself.  Her disappearing dog and cranky cat were the stars of her stories and I loved hearing all about their escapades in the neighborhood where Natalie lived. She spoke, too, about the people in her life - not too fondly I'm sorry to say.   


I invited her to church many a time, hoping she would come and hear the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ - the incredible good news that Christ loves us, took the punishment and made the payment for our sin, rose from the dead, and ever liveth to make intercession for us! That He came to give us life, and that more abundantly. But Natalie never came, and I sorrowed that I didn't speak more often with her about the Saviour.

This Friday should be a day when I get to see Natalie. But I'll be missing her instead...

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