You Can’t Make Old Friends

This blog post is dedicated to my precious Old Friends:
Patti, Joan, Cathy, Sue, Julie, Andrea

I was remembering the street where I grew up.
I was thinking about my friends there and then listened to a new album.
A song on the album was about some of the very things I was thinking.
Needless to say, the song has been on repeat.

Why is is that we do not realize how special things really were until much later?
Why do we fail to see the significance of something in the present?
It seems to take moving away, growing up, and living a little before we understand.
Eventually, we understand.

The street where I grew up was very unique.
The houses looked no different than most houses in the suburbs.
It was not the house that made it special.
It was the people.

There were seven of us girls who all went to grade school and high school together.
We were less than a mile away from school, so there were no buses to our neighborhood.
We walked to and from elementary school.
We were driven if it was raining.

Seven girls.
Six lived on one street.
One girl lived around the corner.
So many memories.

I can still see us on our high school graduation day.
We stood arm and arm on a front lawn.
We were all in our caps and gowns.
The life before us would take us away from that street.

Social media connected us again.
It was interesting how I was found.
Since my name is truly, Regina, no one from those years knew me as, Gina.
I did not include my maiden name on my Facebook page.

It was the day my dear friend posted a picture of herself, her brother, and me.
We were on the Good Ship Lollipop.
There was a very scary looking clown behind us.
I had a lollipop in my mouth, perhaps because I was afraid of the clown.

My friend posted that picture and another picture of a group of us caroling.
Even bundled up with hats and mittens, someone recognized me.
They saw that I was tagged with my married name; a name they did not recognize.
The floodgates opened.

I am glad they did.
Old friends reconnected.
Old not in years but in the duration of the friendship.
Old friends can pick up where they left off; they do not have to go back to chapter one.

It is wonderful to meet new people.
It is wonderful to expand our circle of friends and acquaintances.
No matter how many new friends you have throughout the years, they will never be old friends.
You cannot make old friends.

Apparently the song writer thought the same thing.
I was able to relate to the lyrics of his new song.
It warmed my heart to think that someone else ponders the same things I do.
He put to music what I had been thinking.

Old friends know the scary stories that made you afraid.
Old friends remember when you got braces and glasses.
Old friends remember your awkward stage because they went through one, too.
Old friends remember all the same teachers.

Old friends know the color of your bike.
Old friends know all the games you played.
Old friends remember snacks of Kool Aid and Popsicles on the back porch.
Old friends remember playing tag in the yard and jump rope on the sidewalk.

A sweet friendship refreshes the soul. (Proverbs 27:9)

A chapter one kind of friend is a treasure.
You never have to go back to the beginning and explain.
You do not have to go back because your old friends were there with you.
No other people in the world shared the experience of those growing up years.

A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away. (George Eliot)

That short description is on a card that is tucked away in a favorite poetry book on my shelf.
Those words describe a true friend.
Sifting, removing, keeping.
All done with kindness; all done with love.

New friends, though precious to us, do not share that long history.
You can ask an old friend, Do you remember?
An old friend will remember.
You can laugh together when no one else understands what is so funny.

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15)

We have a Friend.
If we are in Christ, that friendship has been established before the foundations of the world.
Jesus is our old Friend.
Jesus is our new Friend.

Jesus is the One who was, and is, and is to come.
We do not have to explain anything about our story because He is the Author.
We do not have to go back to chapter one because He is before all time and knows everything.
Jesus is the Friend who sticks closer than a brother. (Proverbs 18:24)

Jesus is our old Friend if we have been walking with Him a while.
Jesus is our new Friend if we have just come to faith.
Jesus is our forever Friend.
Jesus’ friendship is pure, and true, and sweet.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.
(John 15:12-14)

How is our friendship with Jesus?
There is only one criterion to being Jesus’ friend.
We must do as Jesus commands.
How are we doing?

“Old Friends” (Ben Rector)
I can still find Wiley’s house
Riding on my bike with eyes closed
I can name every girl that he took out
And from my memory, dial his house phone

Can you take me back when we were just kids
Who weren’t scared of getting older? (yeah yeah)
‘Cause no one knows you like they know you
And no one probably ever will
You can grow up, make new ones
But truth is there’s nothing like old friends (oooh)
‘Cause you can’t make old friends (oooh) (mmm yeah)

2 responses to “You Can’t Make Old Friends”

1. We haven’t played together in 40 years, or have we? This is a new favorite song. Christ has given our friendships a completely different – a fuller- dimension. Isn’t He good to do so? Thank you, Regina!

   Reply

   • Cathy,
     What treasured memories we all share! What a special place to grow up! Those friendships and that street will always be part of who we are. It is a common bond that no one can take away from us. Blessings, sweet friend!
     Regina

     Reply