Friendship Fridays: Constant friends by Evelyn Wright

29 Jun 2023

Moving house can be so disconcerting on many levels, not least how it affects our friendships. Evelyn Wright shares what she learned through a recent move, and how God met her:

Friends change over the years. We have friends from our childhood, but often we lose touch and go our separate ways. Some friends stay just for a season of our lives, but others remain constant and firm friends.

Five years ago Peter and I moved from Glasgow to a little village called Glenluce, which means the valley of light. With God’s guidance we moved here, but I felt lost – all my friends were over 100 miles away. I joined too many local groups, which only exhausted rather than fulfilled me. I ask myself now, why did I do that? After all, my friends Aileen, Fiona and Maria didn’t disappear from my life; we’ve still had constant calls and meet-ups, with all three visiting me here. Only the distance miles-wise has changed; our friendships, love and care for each other has remained the same (or even deepened).

These friends are a constant in my life. They have supported me through difficult days, like being at my side at my mother’s funeral, not even knowing my mum but being there for me. Then sharing laughter and celebrating together at my twentieth wedding anniversary vows’ renewal and the births of both my granddaughters. I thank God for the blessings of friends and I pray that I can be as much a blessing to them as they are to me.

I thank God that he always provides, and now he has provided me with a very special friend who lives in this area. Funnily enough she came from Glasgow too and whilst there, lived a few streets away from me. Our paths may have crossed, we don’t know, but now they have and I have the blessing of a new friend called Hilary.

So no matter the distance our true friends remain a constant in our lives. Proverbs 17:17 says, ‘A friend loves at all times’. In John 13:34 Jesus says, “Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another”.

At times God can feel far away from us, but we can trust that he is always with us. It’s times like this when we need to pray or have our friends pray for us.

God is a constant in our lives – he never leaves us.

Evelyn Wright is a Christian, a wife to Peter, mum to three grownup children, a granny to two granddaughters, a sister and a friend. She leads the Aglow Prayer group and runs the church library with great enthusiasm. She’s also part of her church’s worship team and sings joyfully (though not always tunefully) with Gospelsound choir. And she was recently ordained as a Church Elder.