day 6: Lent for my Neighbor

Ashley and I met at a breakfast place and sat at a table by the window.

The air outside was chilly for Georgia, but with Ashley, things always seem warm.

She’s the friend I laugh with, the friend I cry with, the friend I ask questions with.

So we split some hash browns and drank our coffee with cream and sugar.

We talked life and community and what it means to love people.

This is what happens when we are together–

communion over a biscuit with ice water,

church at the two-person table in the winter sunlight.

Lent is for our alone moments,

our quiet and calm seconds.

But Lent is also for our cackling with a friend,

for our crying with people who see all of us,

who understand that we are human flesh and miraculous spirit, too.

Lent is for the neighbors we spend our moments with,

the one in the apartment next door,

my dear neighbor sitting across the table from me.

And so, again,

God is bigger than I imagined yesterday,

and I can never say that He wasn’t right

with us where we needed Him most.