“Wanna Be My Friend”
theophilus November 22nd, 2008
I took my pre-K son in today to get a much needed haircut. We had a bit of a wait and my son wandered over to the toy box in the corner of the shop. There he met another boy his age and they started playing together.
And I waited for it. I waited for my son to ask the other kid – “wanna be my friend?” He always asks this question when he meets someone his age. They start playing; they start getting along; and then he asks the question; as if to validate that they have indeed become friends.
No thought about it. No second-guessing. No complications. Just, “wanna be friends.”
My son has a lot of friends. He makes them so easily. There are kids he has played with once who he talks about as if they’ve been life-long friends.
Wow, do I wish I could be like him.
We make friendship so hard. Too many rules; too many expectations; too little time. It seems we tend to hang onto the friendships we made when in school for so long because it’s easier to keep a friendship once made and too hard to make new friendships as we grow older.
My 1st grade daughter is the same type of person as her brother; always easy to make a friend. I went to her school last week for lunch for a great “Harvest Day” turkey feast (that’s Thanksgiving to you and me). We were standing in line and I noticed that her class friends symbolized the American melting pot; African-American, Asian, Hispanic and Caucasian. They were all playing; having fun; doing what kids do. No thought of race or religion or socio-economic background. They were just kids.
They were friends.
Yet, too many of us tend to segregrate ourselves in what friendships we have. If you are like me, your friends tend to be just like you. We find it just too hard to find common ground with someone different than us; someone that doesn’t come from the same background as us. It doesn’t make us bad and intolerant people; it just means that we struggle to find Christ in others that have different experiences than we do.
And that is our challenge. “Wanna be my friend” should be our constant thought; our guiding principle in our relationships with others, no matter who they are. We need to recapture our ability to make friends and find common ground with others without hesitation. We need to realize that we are all children of God and he expects us to be one people, his people.
My children are starting fresh in their perception and opinions of others. God willing, my wife and I will do what is necessary to ensure they are always quick to make friends and look at all others as fellow children of God and co-heirs with Christ.
I’m sure tonight, I’m going to hear my son talk about his ”new best friend” and I’ll know Christ is alive in his heart. And it is an inspiring and uplifting thought to behold.
We adults have just made things too hard; and we have so much to learn.
