Making Friends the Hard Way

 Making Friends the Hard Way
This past Sunday our church had a “double header” service. That is what we had, the morning services followed by Sunday school as usual, but this Sunday we had a covered dish meal for those who wished to stay for the fellowship meal afterward. Then we have a second service. We do this occaionally to prevent driving to the church twice in case of bad weather. We have done the same thing when gasoline prices were high as well.
Things are never boring at our church. Sometimes we have visiting missionaries or occasional guest speakers, but the variety always gives us a healthy appetite, either for different speakers of the wide choice of food on the “double header” Sundays.
Sunday morning I had to be careful. Several areas of my driveway were covered in ice and slick. I had no desire to repeat a fall and injure myself again like I did in 2015. Removing the windshield cover then carrying out my Bible and crock pot, it was necessary for me to make two trips to the car. Backing out of my drive was another chore. I had to reverse and rock the car forward several times. The water had frozen forming an icy pocket for one of my tires. It spun before catching traction to leave.
Back to the making of new friends; one of my close friends had a 7 year old great nephew there. I hadn’t had the chance to meet or make friends with him before. I was talking with his grandmother waiting for the food to be set out when I reached out to shake his hand. He was shy and hid behind her. Later we were sitting at the same table on opposite ends. He would glance down the table and make shy faces. After the pastor said a blessing for the food, he opened the chow line. I walked past the boy, I grabbed his hand to shake it. He was surprised and clung to my hand with all the strength he could muster. Now it was my turn to be surprised. He held my hand in a viselike grip, not letting go until we got in the queue for food. I’m not sure that I’ve made a lasting friendship, but we certainly have broken the ice and we now know each other.