New friends

Tonight we capped off a very busy week with dinner with our new friends.  Paul and Diana are here in Manchester now, volunteering at the college.  Paul is working with Big Man, and so we wanted to have them over for dinner as soon as we could.

It is always such an encouraging thing to me when new friends just seem to 'click'.  It's a reminder to me of how the unity we have in Christ can do so much of the work for us, initially, in relationships.  In these cases, it seems our common ground of faith and the shared Spirit make things so easy; it becomes obvious after only a few hours together that here are some kindred spirits.  Now, I am not naive enough to believe this happens with all Christians; I know from experience that it doesn't always.  But it happens often enough to make me think about why.

In fact, that has been the overwhelming experience of our move to Manchester.  So very, very many of the people we've met here have been kindred spirits, immediately and obviously.  It's as though the Lord came ahead of us and prepared just the right people to embrace us and welcome us into their lives.  And why am I so surprised by that?  It's exactly what we prayed for as we were preparing to come.  And it's what He desires for His Church, after all, unity of spirit and friendship.

So tonight, in spite of all the stress that I am purposefully trying to ignore as it piles higher and deeper at the beginning of the semester, I praise the Lord for His goodness and mercy in loving us through His Church.