Yesterday I had a very pleasant surprise.  When I served as an associate pastor in Houston, Texas, Laura and I were friends with Frank and Martha Smith and Robert and Lisa Henson.  The Smiths were very close friends.  Frank and I were in a Bible study together and we were very close personally.  Lisa and I taught a Sunday school class together.  I was several years younger than the average age of the class and it gave me the opportunity to touch a lot of lives.  It was a great class and I still have a lot of wonderful memories from that experience.

Frank has retired and they are living in Houston.  Robert and Lisa now live in Flat Rock, North Carolina and while we hardly ever see them, we still have some contact.  The last time we saw the Smiths was when we ran into them by accident in a store in New York city.  That has been a number of years ago.

Yesterday I was greeting some people in the foyer and I noticed some people that looked vaguely familiar out of the corner of my eye as I was talking to someone else.  It was obvious they were waiting for an opportunity to speak.  It turns out that it was the Smiths and the Hensons.  Frank and Martha had come to visit the Hensons and they decided to drive down from Flat Rock for church.  We were only able to talk for a few minutes but it was a great time.

It was a reminder of what great friends are like.  Even though we have not seen each other in years, it was as if we had never been apart.  That is what happens when you have close friends that are believers.  You can have similar likes and interests. You can remember shared experiences but what really makes the difference is the fact that your friendship was rooted in the Lord.

We grew spiritually with these folks and we shared a love for the Lord.  God used them in our lives and I pray that the Lord used us in theirs.  I have a lot of friends like that, most of them right here in our church.  But this was just another reminder of the lasting values of a friendship that is rooted in your love for the Lord.

I was also reminded of the importance of Bible Fellowship, because that is one of the reasons for having it.  We build lasting relationships.  That is a good thing for us to keep in mind.