With Open Arms

With Open Arms

This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

John 15:12

Kyle and I recently spent the weekend with some of my college friends, another married couple. We made the several-hour trek up to her parents’ place in the woods, which they lovingly refer to as their “shabin” (something in between a shed and a cabin) to spend time together, relax, and reminisce. We spent the unseasonably warm winter weekend walking their land, riding four-wheelers, playing cards, and sitting by the bonfire, all while catching up on life from the past almost-twenty years.

As we talked about all that had happened over the past decades, I felt a sense of love and comfort I’d missed from these friends for quite some time. Life had taken us down different paths, and I wasn’t in contact with these friends like I’d once been. But their response to me was one of open arms, of kindness, of welcoming me back in as if I’d never been away. It felt good to be remembered, to be loved by others with whom I have so much history, to laugh and reminisce about old memories that only these dear friends would know.

There are times in our lives when relationships end, sometimes for good reasons, but there are also times when we simply go in different directions and fall out of touch with those we were once close with. Sometimes in order to love one another the way Jesus loves us, we need to rekindle a friendship or reconnect with those we’ve lost contact with simply because life has gotten busy, causing us to drift apart. Sometimes the comfort we need comes from those who know us best, who have been with us the longest, who know our faults and love us still, and who carry out Christ’s command to love others in the same way that he has shown love to us.

—Kendra

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Ask God to show you whom you could reconnect with. Send them a few words of encouragement or a note of kindness.