Forever is a long time

Yesterday I got an e-mail from an old high school friend who I literally don't think I've seen since graduation. Google and Facebook have all of a sudden made us all available to anyone curious enough to look for us and this friend decided it was time to look up the past.

It's a strange thing to think about friendships like that. We kind of assume that the relationships we have now will always be around - our current friends will always be our current friends - but that isn't really true. If you think about it with me for a second you will quickly remember someone who you were really tight with a while ago that you haven't talked to in months, maybe years. My life is littered with old friends who I have lost touch with for one reason or another, even relationships that I valued dearly.

When you really think about the temporary nature of many of our relationships it can get a little overwhelming, depressing even. But there is something cool to think about in all of this. There is one sure relationship that will last forever and will never end. Ever. In the moment I decided to commit myself to a real, tangible relationship with God, I entered into a friendship that has no possibility of ever ending. God is never going to move away. He's never going to go to a new school or get a job somewhere else. He knows everything, so there's really no need for him to graduate and go to college. Even death can't separate us.

Everything in our lives is temporary to one degree or another, but God isn't. His love and care is constant and never stops. Because he is eternal we can know him forever, a very long time, and still not know everything about him. But we will have forever to keep trying.