Friendship (forgive the lack of a creative title)...

I like my friends. Yes, I do have a few friends and no, I don't have to bribe them (too often) to hang out with me.

This morning I woke up and began to think of my friends (at least the ones that I don't have to bribe). I have always enjoyed hanging out with people. Some of those people are like me, some are really different from me. I think this is what I have enjoyed the most about friendships; the diversity of it all. Through my friends I have experienced and seen things I may never see or be able to experience. My life is enriched through and by them.

Friends that don't require too much bribing.

I find it incredibly refreshing that we can connect with others on such a deep level as to enrich each others lives. I can only imagine what it must have been like in the garden of Eden before sin. Man was perfect and his relationship with God was perfect. How refreshing must that have been? Even in my very imperfect state of being right now (I've ruined many a good friendship), I still find refreshment in imperfect friendships. Maybe it is because within each person no matter how different, there is still the mark of the creator. Maybe it is that God has supplied some measure of grace that allows me to experience the refreshment of what he originally intended friendships to be. This I am sure of, that the more I experience God's grace, the more refreshing my friendships seem to be (even if I have to bribe them to be my friends).