The Gift of Friendship
"Better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away."(Prov. 27:10b)In one of Gerald's pastorates we lived in a lovely neighborhood where the trees were tall and many; the house was more than lovely and the neighbors; let's just say they were prosperous, whereas we were not members of the Country Club...if you get my drift. After putting things in place and making coverings for the windows we managed to set up housekeeping and decided, they'll know we're settled and they'll come over. Is that the role of the newbie? Well, when they didn't come with fried chicken, biscuits, and banana pudding to say, "hello," we decided that everyone was just too busy--you could tell this was true because as soon as they would drive into the garage, the door would go down and there would be no activity . . . surely they were all too tired to be friendly. The days rocked along until Summer was passed and it was my birthday come September; so I had a plan. I baked dozens of chocolate chip cookies and bagged them in zippy's, placed them in a basket and went door to door with these words: today is my birthday and I decided to throw myself a party by giving gifts. Please enjoy these cookies...my name is Paulette and I'm glad to be your neighbor. Many days later I happen to be in the yard digging around the plants at the back door when a car slowed down and the lady from the big house at the back of the culdesac said..."I cookies were nice, you'll have to give me your recipe for my grandchildren," and in the same breath she continued... "I really don't have time to make new friends, I have all the friends I can take care of." And with that she zipped onto the main street while I stood there thinking, and I wasted good chocolate chips on that lady.
We're no longer in the pastorate, yet we live in a lovely neighborhood where the trees are tall and many and the house is of our choosing while the neighbors are surely God's own choice, for never have we experienced such friendliness and brotherhood. Now I'm still waiting on the fried chicken and banana pudding, but frankly who cares about the food when you have the loveliest of people just a few steps from your front door.
I've driven a little car that I named "White Lily" for the last five years and it was time for us to reduce our fleet to one car rather than two. I happen to mention to my neighbor that I was going to sell my car, end of conversation...until a few moments later my phone rang and her husband, Paul said, 'why don't you let me sell your car for you, I have had lots of experience doing that and it would be easy for me." When I got my breath, I said, 'Wow, you'd do that?' 'Sure', he said. And before I knew it my car had been serviced, spit-shined, photographed and put on the market. One day later he came to our door with a fist full of greenbacks saying...I need you to sign right here....He SOLD my car!
Now, honey, I have to tell you, 'that's a whole lot better than banana pudding!' That's a neighbor nearby that's better than a brother far away! I'm just sayin... and I haven't even baked chocolate chip cookies.
The lovely gift of a neighbor, what a friendship!
