Unlikely Friends

I'm amazed that two people so different can be so close. Opposites don't always attract, usually people that are similar stick together, but every now and then you find someone who is... Well, let me put it this way. I first heard this analogy at TEC (teens encounter Christ). When you hold someone's hand, their fingers go in between yours, they fill the gaps.

That's because their strengths fill in where you have weaknesses, or are lacking strength, and vice versa. You're opposites, but you complete each other. And when you find a person who "holds your hand" like that per say, it's a beautiful thing.

It always amazes people when an animal forms a bond with another animal of a totally different species. It's really no big deal when a dog is friends with a dog or you go to the zoo and see two monkeys hanging out, but every now and then you hear about those very special friendships between a monkey and a cat, or a dog and a giraffe, or a horse and a duck. It's always those beautiful connections that catch people's attention. They're not expecting it, and it's inspiring. It makes people think, Gee, if animals can get past their differences and just be friends, then why can't humans?

Truth is, a lot of humans do. We're relational beings and sometimes we do indeed venture outside our own kind. We discard all concepts of religion, race, economic standing, backgrounds, age, gender, intelligence, lifestyles, everything, and look on the inside, and form bonds based on, well, who even knows? Who cares? Maybe it's just mutual love and respect for one another that brings two people together in friendship. Maybe our souls see something our eyes can't. It's beautiful.

My friend, Kayleigh, is, in some ways, the most normal teenage girl you've ever seen, and in other ways, the most remarkable. She looks normal, acts normal, does normal things. But her best friend is someone who is, on the outside, very different. Her best friend has a terminal disease, uses a wheelchair and can no longer even speak normally, but is all right in the head and otherwise quite normal. Kayleigh looked through her classmate's atypical outward appearance and saw her normal interior. The two friends hang out all the time and do all kinds of normal teenage girl things together. Kayleigh even gave a speech at their graduation about her best friend and how she's really not so different after all. If you ask me, Kayleigh's the more different one. She's got a heart of gold that is just incomparable to anyone else.

The song "Failure to Excommunicate" by Relient K has always inspired me with this one line:
Jesus loved the outcasts. He loves the ones the world just loves to hate.

When you run into someone that you feel "above" or something, like they're too weird and you don't want to associate with them, and you ignore them or are mean to them, even, you're choosing to conform to the world. But when you take the time to get to know them, despite their social status, that's like Jesus. He humbled himself by making friends with outcasts, people that society shunned and no one else wanted to be friends with. As it says in Proverbs 25, "Do not exalt yourself in the king's presence, and do not claim a place among great men; it is better for him to say to you, 'Come up here,' than for him to humiliate you before a nobleman." Since culture has changed a lot since the time that was written, this passage serves mostly as a metaphor, but it's a powerful one. In the context I'm trying to relate it to, it means don't be bashful about your friends. Don't let social barriers stand in the way. If being friends with someone who's "weird" or an outcast means humbling yourself, so be it.

However, obviously making friends with people who are different then you doesn't necessarily mean all your friends should be weirdos. You can be friends with popular people too! In fact, I'm not even saying you can't be friends with people similar to you. I'm simply saying that you shouldn't let what you see on the outside hide what you could see on the inside. Be open to possibilities. Friendship can spring up in the most unexpected places.

In writing this, many people came to my mind that are unlikely friendships. I'm friends with people that no one, myself included, ever expected me to be friends with. Contrarily, I've found that people who seem very similar to me on the outside, are really very different on the inside (and we stayed friends anyway).

Friendship is a beautiful thing and is also a pretty universal thing. It's a thing to explore and experiment (gently) with. It's an opportunity to love everyone. So make friends with your neighbor's dog, your grandpa, a homeless man, a little girl, an anonymous identity, your boss, the shy kid in the back of the class. Friendship knows no bounds. Go for it :)

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival."
- C. S. Lewis

"I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends."
-Abraham Lincoln

"Two are better than one
because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up."
- Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

God bless