Recently, I saw a sampler that said, “Friendship isn’t a big thing; it’s a million little things.” I thought to myself, “yep, so true” and wondered how many friends have fallen by the wayside or been kicked to the curb not for failing to be there for the big things in someone’s life, but for being just too busy and unavailable for any number of little things, so that one just finds that such a friend is no longer even needed when the big thing comes along.
I am blessed to have several really valuable “million little things” friends! They’re people who know my moods, likes, dislikes, fears, and foibles. They are people with whom I can spend any stretch of time with no agenda at all, just being without the need to do anything in particular. I often am convicted by the recognition that I am not as good a friend to them as they are to me, however.
I want to be a better “million little things” kind of a friend. One of those friends called me out of the blue this afternoon. Both of us found ourselves without husbands on hand due to their pursuit of their own holiday weekend activities, so she initiated a girls’ night out for dinner and a movie. It was a pleasant time, something that I have seldom taken time to do. We went to see “Iron Man”, a Marvel comic hero action movie….. total mindless escapism. It was such fun! We went to the restaurant of my choice, too. Then, when we went to the movie, we wound up at one she had already seen, so she was catering entirely to my preferences and interests. How good a friend is that? That’s the kind of “million little things” friend that she is, though, always looking for ways to bless me and many others.
It left me wondering as I drove home just who was the real hero of the evening? While Iron Man has his place, it is the Golden Girls, the “million little things” friends that earn the title of hero in my heart!