Parallel Blossoms, Shared Roots

After tucking the kids in bed tonight I was looking through some pictures from this summer. Of all this summer's happy memories, and there were many, I think this one tops the list. Once upon a time two girls met in seventh grade and became fast friends in eighth. They were inseparable--sharing sleepovers, clothes, haircuts, laughs, hopes, dreams, and adventures of every kind. It was a horrible day when one moved over 200 miles away three years later. They kept in touch, but grew apart. And both were very sad.

Then eight years after they had last spoken, modern technology helped them find each other again. And this is what they discovered...the men they had married would sit and talk theology with each other for hours; each had four children almost exactly the same ages (seven out of eight being girls); they disciplined their children the same way--even using the same phrases to correct them; each had spent the last several years working with teenagers; their lives paralleled in more ways than they would have imagined; and their differences were smaller than they had once thought. Perhaps it was coincidence, or perhaps they shared the three most formative years of their lives and helped to shape who each other would become. And it was a very happy reunion.