Tip of My Iceberg

“That’s the bank I’m gonna sue for what they did to me.”

“That’s the brewery I spent yesterday afternoon in.”

“That’s the place I spent all night eating dinner in.”

“That’s the gun range I always use.”

You’d think I had a couple of old men in the back seat of my car, commenting on their lives as they rode with me through Orlando.

Not so much. These were two preteen boys. Great friends. Partners in crime. Unbelievably engaging. Trying to outdo each other in obnoxious behavior.

I was in stitches.

It began late afternoon before I took Teagan and David to soccer practice. They were playing with giant Jenga blocks in the next room, creating a particularly tall tower with more holes than support. Each trying to get the other to collapse what they’d built. They were laughing with such enjoyment I’d have given anything to bottle and sell what they had.

It took awhile to get to the soccer fields, so the two of them sat in the back keeping up a running conversation on nothing in particular. Both have more words than a lot of girls I know. They talked about everything–bodily functions and noises, growing tall, eating food of any kind, manners, and how to babysit large quantities of little kids.

I tried so hard to not laugh.

Not successful.

I got some work done while they practiced. When they returned, I’d liked to have died.

“Which one of you stepped in dog poop? It stinks to high heaven in here.”

David grinned. “It’s Teagan’s goalie gloves. They smell that gross.”

“Not my fault. I had a scab that came off and I bled all over the inside of them.”

“That’s disgusting!”

I was trying to keep from gagging while we looked for a place to grab dinner.

Poor guys needed sustenance.

We stopped and got them food, having hilarious conversations with the box where you give your order. Don’t know if the gal on the other end appreciated the humor.

Gratefully, the smell of french fries and chicken nuggets overwhelmed the sick smell of the goalie gloves. But the conversation just got funnier.

By the time we got home, I couldn’t wipe the grin from my face. I felt better than when I’d left the house four and a half hours earlier. How could such a long evening be so restorative?

We had fun .

Teagan and David get each other. They don’t stand on pretense. If one of them is acting weird, the other will point it out and they’ll have a laugh over it. They’ve no problem being who they really are with one another.

Friendships are a sweet gift from God who made us for relationships. We’re created to love and be loved. How often do I make it harder than it has to be by trying to show up the way I think someone wants me to be?  So much work!

God accepts me as I am. He knows all the warts and wrinkles and still loves me. Real friends do the same.

God longs for that kind of camaraderie with us that Teagan and David share.

Minus the bodily sounds.