friendship

As I was going through some old files last week, I discovered a couple of spiral notebooks that I used when Chaney was younger to jot down memorable things he said and did. As I flipped through the pages, I laughed out loud when I read an entry from February 1996, when Chaney was a kindergartner. Apparently we had seen a story on the news about co-joined twins, an account that prompted Chaney to say wistfully, "I wish that were me and Nathan."

Nathan and Chaney were born three weeks apart in 1990 and spent countless hours in the church nursery together. The friendship that was launched in the "baby jails" has endured for 18 years, despite the fact that boys have never gone to school together and were not in the same church for a decade. I am grateful that throughout his life, Chaney has been surrounded by extraordinary friends like Nathan who have pushed him to excel academically and - more importantly - encouraged him to grow spiritually. "As iron sharpens iron, so one friend sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17).