Today has been a happy day full of smiles and laughter. My dearest friend came over from Alexander City and we ate lunch on the porch on a little red wrought iron table dressed with presidential china, cloth napkins on our laps, feasting on chicken salad in croissants, pimento cheese sandwiches with no edges, chips and pickles, brownies and ice cream for dessert, drank our Cokes from their red cans. She’s such a jewel in my life.

I’m very fortunate with my friendships, both young and old. I know friendship is a gift from God and I’m appreciative of that gift every day in my prayers. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” John 15:13. God created us to have friends and a community of people who love and support us. True friendship is one of his blessings. “A sweet friendship refreshes the soul,” Proverbs 27:9.

The sky was so pretty today. We sat on the porch til time for my friend to head home. We enjoyed the wind chime symphonies and listening to the bird’s choir. Father Sky had sketched the azure blue skies with fluffy sun kissed clouds and by late afternoon he mixed in some cigar smoke gray and pale purple clouds. The sun played hide and seek with us and we’d move around from swing to swing and chair to chair trying to escape the heat, then the clouds would shade the sun’s rays and the cool breeze would blow. Summer and fall all in the same afternoon, perfect for porch pondering with a friend.

God is like the sun, his love and warmth always right with us even though we have to part the clouds sometimes to find him. The Holy Spirit is associated with light in the Bible and God’s light is always around us. Even when we can’t see the sun hidden behind the clouds, her yellow beams are reaching for earth. We may feel neglected when life goes astray but through our prayers we can feel God’s grace and his presence.

God is not hidden from our sight. We don’t have to search for God, he’s always standing with us, steadfast and faithful. We can see him in all the wonders of nature’s world around us — the magnificent sunsets, the bright yellow of the dandelion bloom, the vivid colors of the tiny wildflowers, the beautiful plumage of the tiny songbirds. God’s light is also found in family and loved ones and in friendships with others. Romans 12:10 reads, “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”

God blesses us everyday with the gift of life. Our lives are a blank canvas and every day is a stroke of God’s paint brush. Give yourself to God so he can paint a masterpiece with your life.

“True friends are never apart, maybe in distance but never in heart.” — Helen Keller