​When God Knits Souls Together

​“The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”  1 Samuel 18:1.
 
All I wanted growing up was a sister. I had two brothers when my mom became pregnant with number four. I can’t explain how, but I knew I was finally getting my sister. 
 
I sobbed my eyes out when my grandmother announced that I had a healthy baby brother. Another brother. It just about did me in. 
 
Though I never got my sister, God has been so good to me by blessing me through the years with some absolutely awesome friends. Some of those friendships have only been for a season, but they have left a lasting mark on my heart. Others have stood the test of time and are just comfortable and precious. But then there are those few that are different; ones that I have a hard time finding the right words to adequately explain them. 
 
Grace is one of those.
 
Recently, her husband gave her a surprise birthday party. He asked some of us to roast/toast her at the party. He told me that he wanted me to go last and REALLY roast her! 
 
Oh, I got this!
 
 I began to think back over all our years together and to jot down a few roast worthy things. Then I came to my senses and went back and scratched some out because I realized that if I shared them, I would be embarrassing myself, too. And really, I am learning that it really isn’t all about me so the attention really needed to be on her. Far be it for me to take the attention off of her.
 
I realized that we are really different in some areas.
 
She likes to get on these health kicks, and when she does, she’s all in and expects for everyone else to be all in too. I, on the other hand, have no interest in torturing myself or anyone else. In the 90’s she got on this juice kick. It almost killed all of us. I remember walking into her house one morning and being met with a full glass of something unidentifiable that she had just juiced. She said it was carrot, but it wasn’t orange, so I don’t know. When she turned around I poured it down her drain. I am not even lying – the drain spit the stuff back up at me. Obviously, the rest of her family was doing the same thing because they had to call the plumber several times that summer.
 
She juiced 24-7 and she juiced everything. When the goldfish turned up missing, I was suspicious. Sushi in a cup? Just saying.
 
She likes to drive when we go places for several reasons. One, she likes to arrive on time; I do not. Two, she thinks herself to be good with directions; I can get lost in my backyard. One morning we took off to pick our boys up from a camp near Rock Hill, SC. Campers were to be picked up by 10 o’clock so we left pretty early. She was driving because she knew the way. After all, she had gone to the same camp growing up. We arrived to find our boys sitting on their tiny suitcases in the parking lot all alone because the other campers had been picked up 2 hours earlier…at 10 o’clock. If we hadn’t gone to Rock Hill by way of North Carolina, I feel sure we would have been on time. 
 
Did I mention that the camp was in South Carolina and that we live in South Carolina? So I really have no explanation as to why we were in North Carolina.

I am pretty black and white on most things. I tend to look at the evidence and draw my conclusions. She…not so much. Just recently, we were on our way home from a shopping trip when a highway patrolman pulled up behind us and turned on his blue lights (Clue #1). 
 
I suggested that she might want to pull over, but she insisted that he was not after her. She changed lanes so he could pass her. He switched lanes, too (clue #2). 
 
This happened 2 more times (clues #3 and 4).
 
No amount of rational and logical reasoning on my part could convince her that he was in fact after her. When he finally turned his siren on, she decided that maybe she should pull over. As she was pulling over, I was texting my husband to tell him that I was probably going to need some bail money.
 
Despite our differences, there are a few areas that we have in common. Neither one of us will turn down a good argument. If I have heard her say, “You’re wrong, and I’ll tell you why,” once; I have heard it a thousand times. We are both very good at thinking ourselves to be always right. It’s just a talent we were both born with. We are so good at it, that we have been known to convince each other to change positions on a matter at the same time. It is just wonderful that we are willing to see the other’s point of view, but not so wonderful when we realize that we are now, once again, in opposition because she has adopted my original way of thinking and I have adopted hers. 
 
Grace: “You’re wrong, and I’ll tell you why.” 
 
Me: “No need. I got it. It was my argument first.”
 
So what does any of this have to do with souls being knitted together?
 
Nothing. I just wanted y’all to know what I’ve had to put up with over the years. 
 
Today, though, when I read about Jonathan and David and how their two souls were knitted together, I thought about several precious friends, one of them being my friend Grace.
 
We have grown up together in The Lord. We have that iron sharpening iron kind of friendship. For all the times I joke about her talkativeness and easy distractibility, she is the one who often speaks truth into my life with great accuracy and precision. She can listen to me and cut right through to the heart of the issue, and she loves me enough to tell me what I need to hear not what I want to hear.
 
“You’re wrong, and this is why.”
 
And she’s right.
 
And even though she has gotten me physically lost on more than one occasion, she has a way of helping me find my way when I most need it. I will never forget the night I was driving back home after my mom passed away. I was in the car alone having a hard time making sense of what I was feeling. In my heart, I knew I needed to call her. I don’t remember anything she said, but to this day I remember the comfort that fell over me as she talked and I drove. 
 
Over the years, God has knitted our souls together, and because He has, our friendship has turned into sisterhood. Which makes total sense in light of the fact that we have the same Father. 
 
I am better because of her friendship, as are so many of her friends. 
 
I pray this kind of relationship for my own daughters.
 
Have a great week!
Louise