An Unexpected Friendship

On Saturday morning, I sat across the table from a woman and listened to her story for three hours. We didn't plan for it to be three hours, it just turned out that way. Later, she emailed me and apologized for talking that long. I told her not to say that! I thoroughly enjoyed talking to her-- every bit of the time we spent together was precious. Truth is, I wish we had had more time.

I am still marveling at the way God brought us together, and the timing of it, and how intricately He weaves all of our lives. When the time is right, He crosses this random thread with that one, seamlessly weaving us into a pattern we never envisioned.

Does anyone remember this post? Well at the time I wrote it, I never would have imagined that someday, I would be sitting across the table from that boy's mom. And yet, through my blog and her blog, we got connected and agreed that we needed to meet. I wanted to hear her story, how she's doing now, and tell her how much following her story on her blog has meant to me as the mother of a teenage son.

During our meeting, my son called me. He is looking at cars and wanted me to take care of something for him. I hurried him off the phone and looked at her, wondering how that made her feel. Her son died in a car wreck one week to the day that they handed him the keys to his car. She nodded. "I know," she said. "I remember." Grace lit her face as she spoke volumes in those four words.

What I respected about Tammy is that she didn't spend the time we had dwelling on the tragedy she has lived through. She has spent the last months seeking God and finding His purpose in everything they've faced. She has seen her faith grow by leaps and bounds, and has been surprised at the response she has received from other grieving moms who have found her through her blog. She tells the truth with eloquence and raw beauty, and people respond.

We also ended up spending a good bit of time just talking about how hard it is to raise teenagers and how much we love to write. We went from being strangers, to being acquaintances, to being friends in the span of those three hours. Only God could take a random blog post typed out in the heat of the moment last summer and forge an unexpected friendship from it. I am grateful for the many ways blogging has blessed my life. This was yet another one.