Even FaceBook

This past weekend I had the privilege of meeting up with some friends that I haven’t seen in years. In fact, this weekend was a weekend filled with great joy and celebration. You see, it was my mother’s birthday. And this birthday was significant to her because her own mother had passed away before reaching this particular anniversary. So, I had planned months ago to be with her on her special day.

Her actual birthday was Saturday, so I had mentally made plans to drive down for the weekend; spend the day with her, have cake and presents with my sister that evening, spend the night so I could go to church with her the next day. And then I got an invitation on FaceBook to attend a coffee house featuring Simple Truth.

Simple Truth is two very dear friends of mine. Back in the early 80’s there were five of us who made up the group Trinity Unlimited. As life happens we all moved away from each other, except for Debbie and Jodi. They stayed together, playing coffee houses and special events at area churches. They moved to Maine and continued their music ministry. At some point they became Simple Truth. They are often joined by Pam, another of the original group, when Pam is home.

It turned out Simple Truth was playing at a coffee house in the same county in which my mother lives. And they were performing Friday evening! Suddenly my plans changed. I took some time off from work so that I could drive down earlier on Friday and take my mother to the coffee house. Our reunion Friday evening was filled with love, laughter and a lot of hugs. It seems that it has been too many years.

I am often struck by God’s timing. In fact, I had been thinking about that very topic on my drive to Connecticut. We (Debbie, Jodi and I) even talked about how we reconnected through FaceBook. I shared how several times I had seen that they were performing nearby but for some reason or another I was not able to make the event. We acknowledged that timing is more than “meant to be;” it is always in God’s timing. We joked that God even uses FaceBook.

I have written about similar “meant to be” happenings in my life, and I truly believe it is in God’s timing that events unfold to bring me together with someone I love. One of my very first OMG events with FaceBook was soon after I had joined. Two of my best friends had been hounding me to join FaceBook and events unfolded that prompted me to set up an account, but I was extremely tentative with sending and accepting “friend” requests.

Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s I had a friend who was very dear to me. We last saw each other in 1982. I went away to college, and life took us away from each other. Over the years I would occasionally be reminded of that friendship; an event, the name coming up in conversation, or a mutual friend asking if I knew what had happened to our friend. Most of what I knew, if anything, was based on “last I heard” rumors.

One morning, about four months after joining FaceBook, I had the idea to search for my friend. I found several people with the same name. I weeded out those with the wrong middle initial and ended up with three profiles. I scrutinized all three. (Is that stalking?) I looked at pictures. I read through the list of friends to see if there were any mutual friends or someone I recognized. I looked at the reported hometown. I then took a guess, based on one of those “last I heard” rumors.

I started with a message, basically asking “are you who I think you are?” As I hit “send” I prayed that I would hear back. Even if the answer was “No, I am not who you are looking for,” I wanted to know. The message I got back a couple hours later read: Is that your sister Priscilla with you in your profile picture?

Yes, God even uses FaceBook.

If you enjoy my blog and would like to follow me on FaceBook I can be found at The Reluctant Survivor.

P.S. My friend and I have not had a face-to-face reunion yet. That, too, is in God’s hand.