A reflection on friendship, small moments, and the gift of showing up
I did not plan on finding encyclopedias on the side of the road today.
I did not plan on stopping to investigate them, or deciding they were absolutely worth carrying home. I did not plan on the small Coke from McDonald’s that somehow tasted like the best thing I had ever had on a warm summer afternoon.
But that is the thing about the best moments. They rarely show up on a calendar.
They show up on a walk.
A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. — Sirach 6:14
I walked with one of my dearest friends, my neighborhood bestie, the kind of friend who will stop mid-stride to peer at a pile of discarded books on the side of the road and say yes, absolutely, we are taking those home. The kind of friend who makes an ordinary Tuesday feel like a gift you did not know you needed.
We did not solve any great problems today. We did not have a deep theological discussion or cross anything important off our lists. We walked, we laughed, we found encyclopedias, actual encyclopedias, the kind that used to live in living rooms and hold all the world’s knowledge before the internet arrived and made them beautifully obsolete, and we carried them home like they were treasure.
And honestly? They kind of were.
I have been thinking about what makes a friendship truly sturdy.
It is not the grand gestures. It is not the perfectly planned dinner or the thoughtful gift or the long phone call where everything important gets said. Those things matter but they are not what holds a friendship together over the long haul.
What holds it together is showing up on an ordinary afternoon for an ordinary walk and being fully present for whatever happens next. It is the willingness to be surprised together. To laugh at nothing in particular. To share a small Coke and call it enough.
That is the sturdy shelter Sirach is talking about. Not a fortress. Not something dramatic or impressive. Just someone who shows up consistently, warmly, without an agenda, and makes the ordinary day a little more alive.
God knew what He was doing when He placed the right people in our neighborhoods, our pews, our everyday paths. These are not accidental friendships. They are provisions. Small, faithful shelters He has placed along the road of our lives for exactly the moments when we need them most.
Even the moments we did not know we needed.
Even the Tuesday afternoon moments with encyclopedias and a small Coke and nowhere important to be.
Especially those.
A Porch Prayer
Lord thank You for the friends who show up on ordinary days and make them extraordinary. Thank You for the unplanned moments, the side of the road surprises, and the simple shared joy of a walk with someone who knows us well. Help us never to be too busy or too distracted to notice the treasure You have placed right next door. May we be for others the sturdy shelter that a faithful friend is called to be. Amen.
Friend, who is your sturdy shelter? Who is the person in your life who shows up on ordinary Tuesdays and makes them feel like grace? Take a moment today to thank God for them and maybe even send them a message to let them know.
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