I've had a wonderful privilege recently of meeting a new friend.
She was unlike any I'd ever had before.
We'll call her Lois, just because I can and because she means so much to me.
Lois was a very sweet older lady who lived in my neighborhood. I was invited to start serving her a couple months ago and she has forever changed me for it.
The first time I went to visit her, I was quite terrified. I like to do things very subtly--breaking it in slowly. Pretty much with anything: get a new favorite shirt? try to wear it not very often and gradually ease into wearing it all the time. New favorite song? at first play it just occasionally until everyone else gets used to it, then start blasting it non-stop. Make a new friend? start off by talking to them when you see them and eventually you can just text them at any time of day...
Going to see Lois was not subtle.
She'd lived nearby for a long while and I'd never spoken to her... she pretty much just kept to herself and it wasn't like she was around my age or I saw her anywhere but in church...
So going to her house all of the sudden, and knowing that I would be doing this same thing every week was a bit of a scare. This was going to be a very conspicuous change.
I knocked on the door with a plate of cookies in hand and my mind whizzing with all my doubts pertaining to what I was doing there and was unexpected, but welcomed inside the very first time. I didn't even end up talking to her at all that day, just her daughter. And it wasn't a short conversation either.
When I came back the next week they were even more surprised to see me, but I kept coming back, and every time I did, I seemed to love it more.
I made her all sorts of things and brought them over to her. I started talking with her more and more, now that I could better understand her. I started thinking about her all the time.
And then one day I came to her house to discover that her life would soon be drawing to a close. I had come with my viola to play for her and I was so glad that I did. Playing hymns by request wasn't my best performance ever, but it was one of the sweetest. She would smile as I played and tell me how it reminded her of her family, and her father and her husband who both played the violin.
Music has a way of bonding people, of healing people, of communicating with souls.
That night was very special to me, and when I left, I felt so wonderful from it that I went to play for a couple of my other neighbors as well.
but her favorite song was stuck in my head the whole time...
So when I got home and had some time alone, I sat at the table with her on my mind and this song filling every moment. I decided that I needed to write her the song that she given me.
The words to "Abide With Me, Tis Eventide" (written by M. Lowrie Hofford) are as follows:
1. Abide with me; 'tis eventide.
And it just felt right to add the line of chorus "Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way" from "I Am a Child of God" (Naomi Ward Randall) to the middle of the existing chorus.
It took me hours and hours and I'm still nowhere near being done with it, but I polished up a version and went to play it for her. She could no longer speak to me or smile, but I knew she was listening, and I felt her sweetness throughout the room.
This woman was a very unlikely friend of mine.
We would have appeared to have had nothing in common at all, but I have somehow become her friend and she has taught me so much.
With her, it was easy to see how faith tied into every day life. She was very humble. She trusted God more than anyone I think I've ever met, and I could tell that she loved me. Visiting her brightened any day.
I've always believed that friendship goes a long way and that we learn some of the most important things from the people we meet, but Lois was a special friend. She taught me how to love people I didn't really know, just by being herself.
Proverbs 27:17
17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
