oh, plum pie.

I was remembering with a friend last night how our friendship was built.

it started small, she felt small and I felt large and important and wise and I was proud and somehow she trusted me

and that is how it started. but we didn't become close until I felt weak and small and until she became a person that I could lean on in a time when I felt I had barely anyone else. Thats how God destroys pride, but showing us we are helpless and that our hands are empty of the tools we so long trust in. It was in this time that God revealed who she was to me. That she was intended to be a friend to me. On purpose. That this was God's quilt. And I remember the day still, after we traveled, after we dreamed, and painted and quilted - I remember when God showed me that this was a lifelong friendship. and it made me glad.

She is like a small tree (small being a good thing) that has become large and abundant in fruit, I have felt myself learn more from her than most people. because she wants to be small. she doesn't want her songs to become more. I feel grateful, so, so grateful that God let me discover this friend. this quiet person that to me is not quiet at all. (remember when you taught me how to listen? I didn't like it, but I learned.)

God places people in our lives for us to learn from - however they appear at the beginning. they are so specific to you and your heart and to what God intends to do in you. The homeless man on your porch, God has multiple lessons. The Airbrush painter in your car. your son. The two ladies who eat our muffins. those two friends who speak truth that you dont always want to hear, but you must. :) The drug addict next door. the alcoholic in your house. your Mother. Let them be your teachers. They are part of the quilt God is making of your life.

this friend that I speak of *you know who you are* - I want to learn from her, as we all should from each other. her humble, giving, generous, beautiful, meek spirit speaks to me.

she is not perfect. But she is specific. and becoming. and ahead of me in so many ways. and I am grateful too know that I am also specific to her - God has placed me here in her life for a reason, one I do not know of. (remember when we cried on the bathroom floor and laughed and snotted out all over the place?)

and today because of her constant desire to serve and give and be small for the Lord, I see her as a very large influence, loud for the Lord. (Thank you, Plum)