Someone Who Loves You
Read UMH #526
I recently came across a children’s book that I bought long ago with my own money. It was the first book I ever bought and the book that I probably loved the most as a child. It made me happy every time I looked at the cute illustrations and read the soothing words. The book, by Joan Walsh Anglund and entitled “A Friend is Someone Who Likes You,” reads:
A friend is someone who likes you. It can be a boy… It can be a girl… or a cat… or a dog, or even a white mouse. A tree can be a different kind of friend. It doesn’t talk to you, but you know it likes you, because it gives you apples... or pears… or cherries… or, sometimes, a place to swing. A brook can be a friend in a special way. It talks to you with splashy gurgles. It cools your toes and lets you sit quietly beside it when you don’t fell like speaking……
Sometimes you don’t know who are your friends. Sometimes they are there all the time, but you walk right past them and don’t notice that they like you in a special way. And then you think you don’t have any friends. Then you must stop hurrying and rushing so fast…and move very slowly, and look around carefully, to see someone who smiles at you in a special way… or a dog that wags its tail extra hard whenever you are near.. or a tree that lets you climb it easily… or a brook that lets you be quiet when you want to be quiet. Sometimes you have to find your friend. Some people have lots and lots of friends…and some people have quite a few friends… but everyone… everyone in the whole world has at least one friend. Where did you find yours?
I know it’s just a children’s book, but I still feel really warm and fuzzy every time I read those words. But now when I read the words I think about how so many of us are lonely, searching for love, and wanting to fit in. I also realize that the book has a greater truth: If we slow down, stop hurrying and listen, we will find God in the trees and the brooks, and in one another. As a favorite hymn tells us, “What a friend we have in Jesus.”
Jan Versical
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