This gift of befriending people

One of my pleasures when travelling to new place is to meet new friends out of total strangers. This is especially true when I visited my family in the USA. Such sweet and long lasting memories! The new setting and context provide me with sweet challenge to be outside of my shy self. Well, getting to know people is not that hard compared to how to maintain a meaningful and deep relationship beyond the surface. To stay in contact with significant others can be not very easy, even with one’s family member. It is not rare to find out and to listen to the stories of how young people feel disconnected with the family, old friends and any others. This fact alone makes me think of what kind of efforts can be done to maintain deep, encouraging and loving relationship to others?

First of all when I am pondering upon this matter is that we don’t live in static state. What I mean is, lots of change will occur in the course of time. People move from place to place and their circumstances will not stay from time to time. Needless to say, the struggle of physiological development and adjustments add to the sophistication of human relationship. Beyond all this, at least in my case, I am wishing for meaningful and lasting friendship with these new people that God puts into my life.

The next thought is that of my own limitation and weaknesses. I can feel somehow there is a curve of my enthusiasm toward the people I know. May be this is what people mean by the curse of familiarity. We try to be connected somehow but as the nature of relationship becomes too predictable, it grows weary. This is also faced with another layer of challenges of those barriers of place, time and many technical challenges present in many aspects.

Yet, thanks to Mother Gavrilia for some encouraging sayings of her that I always remember. ‘People are sent.’ ‘Human hearts never stop being good’ and ‘keep praying for God and love is its fruit (my paraphrase)’. That’s exactly it. No human ties or bounds are so important that it may exceed that of God’s. Everything will happen just naturally. Some ties will get loose, the others will get stronger. Let God use it for His purpose and glory. What always matter is that we commend each other to Christ the Lord, who knows each person’s heart. Focusing at the people that He sends here and now and ministering them with love seem to be all that is for us. So, when I am thinking of this, I infer that the state of loving and clinging to God becomes the umbrella of any relationship. People come and go away, yet let our love toward them, toward all,  remains; as God’s love remains with us.