Fellow Journeyers

This morning I am especially thankful for my friend Brandi. There are many things I love about her and many reasons she's great to have around but for today I'm grateful that we walk the same path together.

I'm not thrilled at the fact that the path we share is because of our status as "fatherless girls" (physically speaking, not spiritually); however, I am reminded that even in grief God sends us others to help with our burdens. I'm no more gleeful that Brandi lost her dad than I am that I lost mine and yet within a month of each other, that is where we found ourselves. Both sudden, both unexpected, and both so full of sorrow it's hard to express the utter devastation.

But she knew, she understood, and I did as well. To have somebody to both be encouraged by and to encourage, to be prayed for and to pray for, to cry out and know the other is at the same place, and to share the honest feelings we need to sometimes hide from others is a gift beyond comprehension. To know as darkness has enveloped me that she is still there even though I can't see her is a great comfort.

As if all that is not enough, she is also a pastor's wife....an inspirational one at that. God has intertwined us through this season and grief would be wholly unbearable without my fellow journeyer.