Friendship is a morsel of the Incarnation. As we partake of the bread and the wine, so friendship plays out Christ’s physicality in our lives.

Last week, one of my best friends moved 3,000 horrible miles across the country. Several months of unemployment, ambiguity about the future, and an increasing desire to live out west tugged my friend away from this place, and away from me. I hated to see her to go, but felt even more uneasy about her staying.

There seems to come a time with most good things for an ending to arrive, and resistance to that appropriate ending only prolongs the inevitable. The time had come for Rachel to leave, and I had to let her go.

Exactly four years ago, I stood where I stand today. In May of 2005, I drove away from four years of college and an equal amount of daily, dorm-dwelling friendship with my roommate, my best friend.

I moved to D.C. and began to set up a life for myself in a brand new place, doubtful that I would find friends who could compare to my college soul mates. I was wrong. Deep, rich, transforming friendship would find me in endless supply over the next four years.

But “goodbyes” always sneak their way into my path just when I’ve achieved a level of peace with the way things are. But I can’t just shake my fist in God’s face and ask Him Why? Because each new friendship is a gift that fills my life with more richness, and a new taste of the Kingdom come to earth. Each friendship teaches me a little more of Christ’s personality, a different facet of His grace and truth played out in the nearness of and conversations with His sweet image-bearers. How could I possibly begrudge Him such a gracious prerogative?

In every observance of the Eucharist, He offers me a bit of His hands, His feet . . . His body. In every tender friendship, He offers me a chance to feel His pulse, to know His heart.

As I let Sarah go into the hands of the One who had given me her friendship in the first place, I am learning to let go of Rachel as well, eagerly looking forward to my next glimpse of the Incarnation and the day when we will finally see Him face to face.