Note: On Fridays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
My friend Lora Zill came to visit last week. It’s an intense, sturdy friendship, in the manner Sirach describes. It’s not that our discussions are always deep and soulful. There’s a 
certain Pete Townshend song that makes the two of us and another friend laugh to the point of tears.
But when Lora and I get together, we don’t spend much time talking about our love lives or lack thereof, or movies or TV shows. We talk a lot about God and obedience. We talk about the guidance we as writers rely on in our efforts to do his work, through my forthcoming book, Sisterhood of Saints, and the Christian poetry magazine she publishes, Time of Singing, and her new blog, The Blue Collar Artist. We talk about the times we’ve felt abandoned by the Lord… and about how he holds us tight when we most need him. We talk about the intersection of faith and creativity, of when pedagogy becomes art and whether a faithful re-creation of a painting is art or craft and if one or the other is more pleasing to God.
We know God in different ways, Lora and I. I tend a bit to the mystic side, while Lora knows the Bible practically backward and forward, as a former street evangelist. And while she doesn’t know much about Sirach, being a Protestant, our friendship came to mind when I prayed over these readings. And I hope God has gifted you with a treasure like her, a friend who attempts to reflect Christ and appreciates the times in which you attempt to reflect him back.
One thing I’ve learned in my five plus decades is true friends are gifts from God whose value is beyond measure. I am honored and humbled, and I honor and cherish you, my friend.