“We Go Way Back”

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“We Go Way Back”

September 18, 2011 by creatorworship

You’ve said it or heard someone say it: “We go way back”. How many people can you say that about and know that you’d love to spend more time with them (as opposed to I understand who he is and tolerate it)?

In many respects we couldn’t have been more different. He was a 2nd generation homesteader who farmed upwards of 6000 acres in Central British Columbia; I was a suburbanite Southerner whose dad talked about science and education much of my growing up years. He is very relational, a good story teller, laid back and consistent; I was rather individualist, sought and spouted facts, intense and spontaneous. Here we both were in the same school together pursuing similar goals in the summer of 1985. He graduated and went on to reach those goals; I went in diverse directions. Accents and slang were a topic of light-hearted poking- so many differences.

But when we began school we had an immediate camaraderie. We understood each other. We shared a common faith. Our wives enjoyed sharing conversation and every kind of tip for spouses and mothers. Our growing families played well together. We played together and worked together; ate together and talked together.

It’s so hard to keep up with people: distance, career, 5 or 6 children, interests and pursuits and years of separation. We kept up some but life is busy as they say. So what a pleasant surprise that they were coming from Saskatchewan to North Carolina for a conference, having a weekend on either end. How do you talk to someone after so long? We hardly even hesitated. There was so much to catch up on. On Saturday while the wives sipped tea and caught up he and I walked in the woods like we used to do. The conversation seemed to deepen the further we walked. It was a good weekend and a beginning of a better connection. The most important shared things, belief in God’s salvation and goodness, and aspirations to serve and glorify Him are not dimmed by years and distance. Perhaps we’ll stand side by side occasionally in eternity, remembering the circuitous paths of grace we took in God’s purposes for us and say, “We go way back”.