Flip Flop Friends

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Being that summer is just around the corner, it is time to pull out the most fashionable of all footwear styles -

Flip Flops!

Just as children should not be in school in these hot months, neither should feet be encased in material as the temperatures rise!

Today I tried some new flip flops and they were bouncy - really bouncy. When you walked it felt like you were on a gymnastics mat or a people mover at the airport. Talk about a spring in your step...!

So I put them on for a quick walking errand and found that after a half dozen steps I was adjusting them on my feet. Then after a bit I was walking a little differently to accommodate my shoes, the kind of gait you know if you keep it up for a long time that your feet will be killing you tomorrow, not quite broken in yet...

As soon as I got back I slipped into my old flip flops - ahhhh...so much better!

I'd broken these in all last summer and they conform perfectly to my feet, now they weren't springy but they were wonderfully and immediately comfortable.

I thought of my friends.
My old friends.

You know the kind; the one with whom you're immediately back to where you last left off even if it was two days or two months or two years ago.

The one you have had for so long the majority of your life has been in their company.

The one you can totally be yourself with because they will "never think any less of you". (You may have to think about that for a minute!)

The one you call or email when there's really nothing to say except "Hi", or the one you throw sheep at each time you log into Facebook.

And the beauty of old friends is that, they don't have to be old...either in years, or time of acquaintance - isn't that amazing?

I met a woman a little over two years ago and already she's an old friend - a comfortable confidant. We "walked around" together for a while and "broke" each other in through casual and then deepening conversation and various activities and voila', a new old flip flop friend.

I have often thought of James 1:17 when I think of friendship in that "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father."

Any friendship, new, old, broken in, or just beginning, can be an amazing gift.

I'll bet you may be thinking of someone about now... so go ahead, thank God, by name, for each of these special gifts He's given you and let them know too.

I just did and you know who you are, because my love and gratefulness for you should not be new news!

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