the missing friend

so i try hard to stay in touch with people....not always so easy.....but i do my best- well i would like to think i do- i guess i could do better...but that is not what this is about....i have taken a side trip...excuse me while i get back on the original road......

i LOVE photographs...old....new....black and white....color....sephia....glossy....matte.....i love what the potographs represent.....they are pictures of a time frozen forever....some show faces.....some show land...but all of them tell a story.... (like this one of a friend and his son on a boat ride in florida....it tells more about the people then the event...)

if you come to my home...or to my office....or just glace through my bible you will find pictures....some of faces...some of land...some that are black and white....some that are in color....i have cut some to fit a space...i have enlarged others to scream a story.....reguardless....pictures are everywhere......and i am always looking for new ones....i go nowhere without at least one camera......... yet today the pictures that surround me with joy....have also brought a stab of sadness to my heart........sitting here at my desk the faces of so many stare at me....people who i have met over the years...students who have been a part of a ministry.......as i look at the faces i can tell you things about each person....yet a few pictures are harder to talk about....they are the faces of people who i don't see regularly....some i wonder if i will ever spend time with them again.....then there is a face of a friend who impacted my life in amazing ways........yet this picture is the one that haunts me the most....see i haven't talked to this friend in a while....not for lack of trying....for awhile they couldn't be found- didn't want to be found- but one day i did find them....yet i think they didn't want to be found....the phone call remains unreturned....it is sad really....

you see i believe that as we walk this journey called life God blesses us by bringing people in and out of our lives....some of these people are meant to be there only for a moment....a small corner of the great picture of what God is wanting us to see and experience....(i am sure you all know the type of people i am talking about...you might share names and a conversation yet you know that will be all it ever is).....but others you know without doubt that your paths have been crossed for a greater moment then a quick shared story. your lives will forever be linked in some way....these are the people you strive to stay in contact with...you work at the relationship....they are also the ones that if you go 6 months between seeing each other it is like that time didn't happen when you get together....and those are the people that when they go missing from your life you wonder about them lots.....so this is where i am with this friend....i have taken most pictures of them down....they have become too hard to look at daily....just a reminder of a friend that is missing....i keep a few of them up....not that i need them to recall the face, the places, the memories and the times shared....but it is a comfort to glance and see their face......but some days it is like i am looking at the milk carton picture...or the big billboards of children and people who are missing.....i always feel for the people whos lives have been interupted by the missing person in thier life...unlike them i know where my friend is....i know they are alright....so in that way i am blessed....but i would still like to file a missing friend report today....just want them to know that they are loved.........missed.........they made a impression in my life....that won't change.....

so why does God cause our lives to cross if some encounters will only bring pain in the end? it is a process of life...a process of finding who we really are.....no matter who we are and where we go ultimatly we are shaped by our past and our present....and truthfully we are never alone on the journey........God is there....and if you ever doubt that look at the faces that surround you.....look at the pictures on your wall...in your office....and if you don't have pictures go grap a camera and start getting those moments of time............

well i need to go run in circles.......
happy trails!