Sometimes God knits hearts together quickly. So it was for my girlfriend, Jeanie, and me... with New-found Friend.
We loved and bonded with New-found Friend instantly, while visiting at her hospice bedside.
We talked together...
- about her family... sweet, loving details of the ones she loved the most
- about her 80th birthday celebration... looking at each picture in The Album
- about things of God... what Heaven will be like... sharing how God became real to us... His lovingkindness and strength... reading and discussing from the Psalms
We touched...
- precious hugs
- holding hands, stroking arms
We sang together... and sang and sang... songs like...
- In The Garden (New-found Friend's very favorite)
- How Great Thou Art (she especially loved this one, too)
- Day By Day
- I've Got a Mansion
- Jesus Loves Me (New-found Friend sang this one aloud, with Jeanie and me, while keeping time with her foot under the sheets)
- Unto Thee, Oh Lord
- His Eye Is On The Sparrow
We prayed...
- Crying out for New-found Friend's strength in her suffering
- Asking God for her children to be at her bedside when she drew her final breath
- Thanking God that He is the God of all Comfort... and can always be trusted
- New-found Friend took our hands in hers, thanking God for our friendship
We laughed and teased...
- "I left the house without making my bed," I confessed to New-found Friend. "Why, for shame! I just can't believe it!" she laughingly scolded, with that mischievious laugh and sparkly smile.
- When I sang Happy Trails to her at our parting, the final words being, "Keep smiling until then... happy trails to you... 'til we meet again." She looked up at us in the doorway, away from the nurses' attention, and in spite of her intense pain, giving us the most delightful, playful, toothy grin.
I refer to her as New-found Friend because we met her such a short time ago. But in another sense, she was New-found Friend, as she had only recently become a friend to Grace, praying a sinner's prayer for God to save her soul.
New-found Friend met the Lover of her soul the very next morning after our last visit, unexpectedly for all but her Saviour. Her beloved children were by her side.
"'Til we meet again,"... New-found Friend...on Heaven's shores.
