Good morning…

“Do beautifully for one what you would like to do for all.” This sentence is a gift I brought home from my belated birthday lunch. Feeling deeply in sync as a foursome of friends, we try to schedule a lunch during each person’s birthday season. Last Thursday we met, we talked, we celebrated together, and I left with a gem from a story we shared: “Do beautifully for one what you would like to do for all.”

Why do I love this sentence so? Because it whispers sweet truth to my small town heart. Nestled in the cozy, one stop light village of New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, I learned how to live up close with a handful of friends, deeply loved and loving deeply. I experienced the rich value of doing beautifully for one friend, doing beautifully for another friend, then doing beautifully for the next friend day after day. It was simple back then. I had a tiny circle of about five close friends, women I saw most days, women who loved my family like I loved theirs. I could count on my best friends like my fingers on one hand.

When God dug me up to transplant me thirteen years ago, I am so grateful He kept my root system in tact. Replanted in the huge pot of Atlanta, Georgia, the “all” that surrounded me was unfamiliar, overwhelming, discombobulating to me. How would I ever meet “all” of the fast paced, foreign needs bombarding my lonely heart? “Do beautifully for one what you would like to do for all.” Without ever meeting this sentence before last week, I intuitively began living her wisdom.

For example, two nights ago I was inspired to “do for one” around 3:00 am. I sent this email to my friend: “I am up praying for you as you prepare for your second chemo treatment. I know you feel understandable dread. I pray you feel God’s power, God’s presence, God’s peace holding you. I pray that choosing to cut your hair, before it all falls out, feels somehow like changing the locks (an image left over from a conversation about her previous divorce), starting from scratch over again, with all of your essential parts tucked safely inside. You are being pruned back to where your branch meets God’s vine, and that is the connection from where all nourishment flows. As you deal with the side effects this week and next, my prayer is that you ask yourself regularly, ‘What would be restorative to me right now?’ It might be quiet moments outside in the sun, feeling the power of the benevolent breeze. It might be a nap or a phone call with a friend, a cup of tea in silent solitude or sorting through old pictures. The Holy Spirit in you will know what you need. I pray that God gradually leads you, day by day, down the path of complete healing. Some of these details will never be pretty, but God is in the process of making the whole of your life beautiful. Sending my love along with my prayers, Sue.”

Deeply loved and loving deeply has become simple again in this big, now familiar space. I can do beautifully for my one friend what I would like to do for all who have been divorced, all who are battling a scary diagnosis, all who suffer through the painful side effects of life. I hope that through me writing about my daily experience of loving up close, all of you will be inspired by God to love up close the “ones” in your inner circle. Day after day, as we each do beautifully for one what we would like to do for all, God’s powerful love moves up our securely connected branch to grow fruit for the hungry world.

The Lord had said… “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
…I will bless you;
…and you will be a blessing.
…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you,”
Genesis 12:1-3 (NIV),

Sue