Crossroads - At the Intersection of Yesterday and Tomorrow (Part Deux)

Crossroads - At the Intersection of Yesterday and Tomorrow (Part Deux)

We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends. —Sir Francis Bacon

TIME HEALS all wounds? Well, yes . . . maybe. But how much time?

A few years later, still estranged, Terri and Marny met at a friend’s wedding, but the two wouldn’t even speak to one another. Their old high-school friends were shocked and confused that the two chums were no longer close. And at their ten-year reunion this dynamic duo, once as thick as flies, could be seen having only a cool, cordial conversation in passing. They each sat at the intersection of the hurt feelings of yesterday and the hopes of reconciliation for tomorrow. Both turned to the wounds of yesterday. Neither would allow the healing of their scraped knees.

But when we allow it, time can work its magic, and hearts do soften—especially when we finally grow up and realize how few tomorrows we really have.

Preparing for her twenty-year reunion, Terri realized it was past time to turn on her blinker. Holding her breath as she clicked the send button, Terri resolutely reached out to her buddy from so long ago. I asked Terri, “Were you afraid you’d be rejected?” She answered, “I didn’t think about that. I just knew that reaching out to Marny was the right thing to do.”

Sitting under a tree on their high school lawn, the best friends reunited and began the journey toward reconciliation. Catching up on two decades of joys, disappointments, successes, and failures, Terri said all she could think was, What a loss.

The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life;a wise person wins friends. (Proverbs 11:30)

Girlfriends, there’s a good chance that most of us either have or will have to sit at this intersection with an old friend. Are you still turning toward yesterday, refusing to let your scraped knee heal? Take a chance and take a right onto tomorrow; I have heard that reconciliation might be in the next block.