Connected...

I have three really best friends... We are connected. A very strong, unbreakable bond exists, and we did not create it. We accepted and welcomed it...

The first is my wife... she is amazing. Even with all of the pain, disability, suffering and loss she experiences so much of the time - she never ceases to amaze me with her positive outlook, determination and hope. She is my very best and closest friend. She brings out the very best in me, although at times, our circumstances have brought out the very worst. She has offered more love, forgiveness, acceptance, grace and understanding than anyone I know. We share so many inside jokes, movie lines and laughs. She is the very best.

The second is my friend - who I will call William, because it is one of his names, and it says so much - Will I Am... He is closer than a brother to me. When I am with him, I am never self-conscious. I am myself at my truest and best. He is one of the very few most trustworthy, accepting and encouraging people I have ever known. We laugh together, cry together, know each other very well, find ways to make time to get together for any reason or no reason at all, or call or text or whatever... if either of us goes a few days without contacting the other, the other one reaches out. He has taught me patience, understanding, peacefulness, resting, healing from deep wounds... he is like salt and light in my life, and we are completely open with each other.

The third is his wife. She is an amazing, graceful, peaceful, insightful, encouraging, positive, kind, gentle, radical, incredible, sometimes firey and always powerful (spiritually) person. Their love for each other and for us has changed us deeply forever. Being able to observe their marriage has encouraged, even provoked, us to move into the same type of deep, everlasting, accepting relationship.

The best of all is when the four of us are able to all get together and talk. Sometimes it's just a hilarious time - laughter, joy, peace, fun - sometimes off color and "irreverant", if there were such a thing... Other times, we have prayed together, shared visions and dreams, shared problems and burdens, supported and loved each other. What Daddy created in these relationships is unlike anything any of us have ever known. Our commitment and loyalty to each other is a bedrock foundation, in the common rock of our Daddy God. We are in keeping relationships with each other - and we encourage and support each other as we all grow, while still keeping us young and pliable -teachable, as children.

As you read this, I pray that you know or will know relationships like this in your own life. May the Lord bring to you those who He intends be in your life. May all resistance and obstacles be removed, and may you be kept in perfect relationship by the love of our Father, as these relationships are inseparably bound to Him as well, in a many stranded cord, strong and unbreakable, true and authentic, safe and secure - Connected...

J/