Tea Cup Friends

Our home has delightful gifts from friends tucked all over it.  Each gift readily brings that person to my mind, when I truly stop and see it.  Today as I was resting on our bed, in the sweltering heat of the day, my eyes fell on a lovely tea cup sitting on my dresser.  Today was a day where I stopped and reflected about that lovely cup and the beautiful friend who gave it to me.  The tea cup came with an attached “prophecy”, so I want to share the fulfillment of that “word”.

 

Debbie and I met when we were both well with child.  Her first.  My fourth.  I’m not sure if it was our pregnant hormones, or our life circles, but we became friends quickly.  Her wit, her beauty, her sincerity, our babies who were born only weeks apart, her honesty,and her wisdom were just a few of the qualities that drew me to Debbie.   There was a kindred ness that is still present to this day.  As the years clicked by, we almost always saw each other each week at church.  Bouncing our babies, as they learned about Jesus.  Helping them do their little crafts and eat their snacks.  As more years went by, Debbie and I co taught the children.  I always appreciated Debbie’s insight and wisdom……as she is a trained teacher, and I am just a mother who couldn’t say no.  In between Bible stories, snacks and crafts….we would whisper our burdens and our joys.  Often if you were watching at the right times, you would see those ‘teachers’ wiping tears or suppressing giggles as our week would get summed up in snatches of minutes.  Often I would slip late into the second row of church, because to me….”listening to Debbie” or other dear friends along the corridors to the sanctuary was as much as “church” as was hearing the sermon (sorry Darron).

I don’t remember the exact details of how Debbie presented me with the gift of a tea cup.  Yet I remember enough.  I remember opening the gift and knowing that this tea cup, white and etched in gold trim was from Debbie’s wedding set.  That is huge!  Breaking a wedding set to give to a friend.  Maybe a daughter or a god daughter?  The ‘prophetic’ note read, “I want you to enjoy this before you go to Africa.”  Oh we laughed about that note.  Somehow Debbie knew that Georgia would not always be our home.

More years clicked by.  Our children started school.  We celebrated their milestones of loosing those first teeth and printing their names.  We cried and prayed as different life circumstances tested our faith as individual women.  Then our call came for my family to move to Indonesia.  I gently wrapped my great grandmothers china and left it stowed for safe keeping with my parents.  The only china I brought to Indonesia is Debbie’s cup.  I decided that I needed to still enjoy it….even though my “Africa” was upon me. 

That cup is way more then just a tea cup to me.  It is a symbol of a friendship that still lives on despite miles and long spans of little communication.  The days that my eyes stop and see the “tea cup gifts” in my home, I am reminded to pray for those friends who gave me part of them.  I am richer (in heart and soul) because of them.  Do you have some tea cup gifts in your home?  Maybe that friend could use a prayer today, or a phone call or a Facebook message.  I am so glad that God has not asked us to walk alone.  I am also thankful for friends who can break up traditional wedding sets to express something much deeper then words can express.

I love you Debbie.  I’m praying for you today and many days when I stop and remember my tea cup friend.