“If you’re ever in a jam, here I am. If you ever need a pal, I’m your gal. If you ever feel so happy you land in jail, I’m your bail. It’s friendship, friendship, Just a perfect blendship, When other friendships have been forgot, Ours will still be hot! Lahdle-ahdle-ahdle-dig-dig-dig.”
Whenever I hear “The Friendship Song” I think of Sandra. I see us singing that song together at a church fundraiser, decked out in matching sequined tams that caught the light, reflecting the joy and sparkle of friendship. We had a “blast and a half” that night.
Sandra was on the Board that hired me at Faith Unity, and went on to become a minister herself. Between the time of being on my Board and her acceptance into the ministerial program, she served as my right-hand gal, an exceptional support to me, and a tireless worker for good. Once she graduated, she served a church in Ohio, for a period of ten years, and proved an outstanding minister to her own congregation. She is missed by many. Here is a “Christmas Greeting” she sent one holiday season, a reprint from the work of Fra Giovanni, A.D. 1513, an enduring blessing, not only from the author, but from the friend who blessed me with it. Of such gifts, it’s author writes most gloriously.
“I salute you. I am your friend and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you that you have not got; but there is much, very much, that while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. TAKE HEAVEN! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in the present little instant. TAKE PEACE! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it yet within our reach is joy. There is a radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see and to see we have only to look. I beseech you to look. Life is so generous a giver, but we judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty, believe me, that angel’s hand is there; the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing Presence. Our joys too; be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts. Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it; That is all! But courage you have; And the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending, through unknown country, home. And so at this CHRISTMAS time, I greet you. Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you now and forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.”
Yes, indeed. As I read, once more I touch your hand, my friend. Wherever you are in your eternal journey, I send you Godspeed.