• Make new friends,
• And keep the old.
• The one is silver
• And the other gold.

The week just past has been golden. My sister and I are close-in-heart to three cousins (Gloria, Patti, and Jan) who live 2000 miles away. In addition to being our relatives, they’re also our friends. Old friends, gold friends, of 60+ years. And they were just here for a visit.

In the last few days we’ve shared one adventure after another. For people our ages, ordinary living can escalate into excitement without too much trouble. Take electronic tasks, for example. Buying tickets on line, hooking a computer to a TV, and transferring photos electronically all led to good memory-making and sometimes even success.

Throughout the week we’ve been stockpiling memories, not because we’ve spent lots of money, filled the agenda with events, or pursued unique thrills. All we did was come together with a loose plan to learn the latest about each other.

Anyone can successfully make good memories with relatives or friends if they’re willing to do two things: spend time and expend effort. If we expect to grow closer to our favorite people, we have to commit to those two things.

This is true even with God.

If we want to steadily become closer to him as a Friend and Relative and make fresh memories with him, it requires the expense of time and our making the effort.

Gloria, Jan, and Patti put forth a major effort to travel across the country for this visit: clearing busy schedules, making arrangements to be absent from their homes, paying for plane tickets, and adjusting to the changes of three time zones. Mary and I do the same when we visit them in California. Are these memory-making trips worth it? All 5 of us nod simultaneously.

The loftier question is how much arranging and adjusting are we willing to do to make fresh memories with God? Are we content to merely put him on a pedestal and worship from a distance? Or are we so excited about his invitation to be his friend that we’re willing to carve out time and make a wholehearted effort to pursue that?

Gloria, Jan, and Patti left for their homes today, and after a week together, we’re now up-to-date all-around. Our memory banks are full with new understanding of what each is thinking and what specific challenges each is facing. During scores of hours we shared our hearts with one another, which included current hopes and dreams. As a result, now that we have all the new info, each of us knows how to better connect with the others, as well as how to pray more effectively.

But are we just as eager to connect with God on such an intimate level? He’s got the time and will make the effort, if we will. And when we’re willing, the result will be pure gold.

“A friend loves at all times.” (Proverbs 17:17)