Friendship Fridays: Best friends by Keren Dibbens-Wyatt

02 Jun 2023

Wise and winsome words from Keren on deep friendship. Much to ponder and celebrate:

Bev and I sat and held hands. There was so much to say that we didn’t even try. Silence said it better, and of course she was wary of tiring me. Here she was at last, my anam cara, soul friend, sitting right next to me. Normally, she would be several thousand miles away in Vancouver, me here in the UK. We met on the internet, which can be a wonderful place – I met my husband there too. On that memorable day a few years ago, she came visiting, she and her family having made a stopover especially.

That’s the thing about best friends, or your beloved, they know and love you without you having to do or say anything much. They recognise something in you that speaks to their heart. They understand your sense of humour. Two signs of a great friendship or relationship are that you can sit in a comfortable silence and still commune, and that you don’t have to explain the joke.

God is like that too. Who knows us better than the one who made us? A fellow Christian once asked me who my best friend was. Without hesitation, I said, “God.”

He frowned, “Oh. Most people would say Jesus.”

I felt I was being corrected. I’ve always prayed to God the Father through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. I see them as One. And though it’s true that they are, it’s easier, perhaps, to relate to Jesus, the human extension of God into his own creation. We can imagine those eyes smiling at us, like Bev’s eyes sparkled at me that precious day.

We know the stories so well, we feel it might be us sitting in the boat or breaking bread with this person who knows us completely. The one who knew everything the Samaritan woman ever did, or read Nathaniel’s heart so thoroughly he saw there was no guile in it.

Jesus knows us too. He will always travel the distance, be comfortable with us, look us in the eyes, and always, always get the joke.

Keren Dibbens-Wyatt is a chronically ill Christian contemplative, writer and artist. She has a passion for prayer, poetry, story and colour. Her writing features regularly in literary journals and anthologies (Fathom, Amethyst Review, The Blue Nib, Linen Press, Orchard Lea Press), and on spiritual blogs (The Redbud Post, Contemplative Light, Godspace). She is the author of the books Recital of Love (Paraclete Press, 2020) and Young Bloody Mary (Mogzilla Books, 2023). Keren lives in South-East England and suffers from M.E., which keeps her housebound and out of the trouble she would doubtless get into otherwise.