I have thought about how the Lord has created us to be in fellowship with one another and its only my pride that thinks I can handle being without it. This realization hit in a way that I would never have guessed….facebook. Crazy, huh? My birthday was Monday and since I am 13 hours ahead of most of you, the facebook greetings came for about 48 hours! I heard from people that I haven’t heard from in years! What a blessing! Being so far from family and hometown friends is made sweet by such quick greetings. I was humbled and encouraged for my “lonely” birthday without Barrett by these quick quips. But fellowship can also come in ways other than technological typings…for instance, my time with Linda and Lynda.
I gave Linda a hug as her husband (who is actually Barrett’s CO) carried Annabelle to the car. We just had a luscious homemade dinner (complete with pumpkin cake for dessert), with their family, a single girl who is teaching English to Japanese students, and a woman with her 3 children whose husband is deployed more than home. In fact, no one has ever seen her husband for all of his deployments. The loneliness was apparent with how she shared as much as she could in one sentence after another. It happens more often than not, I think, when faced with long days and no other adults to exchange tales. You find the words come faster than a waterfall after a good rain and no dam can stop them. We all understood. We have all been there. Nonetheless, we all smiled and laughed over common backgrounds and good food. Linda and Will both took turns lovin on Annabelle, which warmed my heart more than a fire on a winter day. It encourages me that she can begin forming examples of Godly Christian fellowship early on in her little life with people like these taking time to rock and hold her.
If that was the only fellowship we had this week, that would have been enough, but this night actually followed the previous one, where dear friends took me to family night dinner on base. =0) This dinner was also laced with laughter filled stories from the week and from our lives . And Annabelle was rocked and cuddled by yet another special Lynda in my life. What a joy that the Lord has given me such amazing examples of what Godly families should look like, not perfect, but faithful and loving.
So thank you to all my facebook friends and family for grounding some loneliness birds this week, and thank you to my new friends for inviting me over to love on me and Annabelle when we needed it most. And most of all, I am thankful for my Savior who paid my sin debt to restore my broken fellowship with the Father in heaven so I will never be alone. We were created to have fellowship with Him first and then our brothers and sisters in Christ here on earth. He reminds me in His Word that we love because He first loved us. I pray that I will give this same loving fellowship to all who come across my path as well.