“The Only Friend You Will Ever Need”

My mother introduced me when I was very young to the only friend I’ve ever needed.

I, myself, can‘t for the life of me understand why people reject him or dismiss the miracles he can do in one’s life. He is the only friend one would ever need. He does not discriminate. He loves us just the way we are. He is always there for us. He never shuns us because others are more popular. He never talks doodoo behind our back. He is like our own personal Ninja, spiritual warrior as he is always there to protect us from the demons in our life and sometimes even protect us from our own bad decisions.

I want to share some of the reasons why he is the best friend I will ever need or want. There was a family within our church association whose daughter had a rare illness and little by little she was being robbed of her physical abilities and the Doctors had told her parents that she would die. A whole community of churches were praying for her and little by little she began to recover to the point it was as if she was never sick in the first place. Her doctors were perplexed as they had no explanation for her miraculous recovery but all who had went to him on her behalf knew who was responsible for giving her life back to her.

A young girl, age 10-12, was her parent’s first child and so they didn’t know how to deal with her. When she would misbehave and act out, they would put her in her closet in her room for time out. One night she was behaving very badly, her father put her in her closet, took the bulb out of the closet, then he put her pillow in the closet and said she was to sleep there, she was terrified! She began to scream out her friend’s name, “Please get me out of here” she screamed, soon after her father came in and let her out of the closet and never put her there again.

Around this same age she developed a curiosity with fire. She began playing with matches on her way to school. A parent of a child who walked to school with her had called her mother. To deter her from playing with matches her parents held her hand down, took 3 stick matches and burnt her hand to the point it was blistered up and the pain was unbearable, he was there and got her through it.

When she was 18, she made the mistake of calling her mother a word that rhymes with witch and starts with a B. It was very disrespectful; her father wasn’t a big man but when he was angry you knew it! She could hear her father stomping across the upstairs floor, she knew she had hugely made a mistake, she ran down to the basement and sat in front of the sofa on the floor, her father came stomping down the stairs, she had braced herself against the sofa, her father held her by her throat and began punching her. In her mind she called to him for protection as she was scared, he wouldn’t stop and then he did.

When my sister and I had been out shopping, while on the way home, we had been talking, the stop light had changed red, my sister stomped on her brakes and nothing happened, at this same time a bus had pulled out away from the curb, we hit the bus dead center. I wasn‘t wearing my seatbelt and for some odd reason I sat forward just before we hit the bus. My sister’s head hit the steering wheel hard. After being taken to the hospital it was determined she had a concussion. I had several lacerations on my face. A Doctor from the ER told me that one of my lacerations was 1\4 inch deep. He said that if it had been slightly over from where it was, I would’ve bled to death before the ambulance would have even got to the scene. He was there for me.

When I was in my early to late 20s, I was reckless as I would drink and do drugs and I look back and know he was there protecting me and others as there were times I drove on the wrong side of the street or couldn’t remember how I got home.

When I had decided to separate from my first husband, I took our young children and stayed with my parents. he would constantly call me or show up at my work unannounced and demand that I come home. I was working over 40 hours a week, often Saturdays and 10-hour shifts. I was unhappy as I rarely got to spend time with my children. One morning I had gotten to work early and was sitting in my car and was emotionally and physically drained, I was so tired of fighting with my husband and being told by him I wasn’t thinking properly, and I needed to get my mind straight and think like him. I took my box cutters out and was going to slit my wrist as I felt hopeless and there was no solution to my problems. Just as I was getting ready to swipe the blade I saw a beautiful red fox in the field in front of my car, I stopped and realized I could not do this to my children, and yet again he was there.

I had years later, made a final separation from my husband and had a very nice house for my children and I but I would hang my hand down behind my bed when I slept. I was continually being bitten by brown recluse spiders and each time I would end up in the ER, to the point they eventually told me that when I got bit, I needed to have intravenous antibiotics as well as an oral one in order to stop MRSA staff from developing. One particular time I went to the ER and they identified that I had, once again been bitten, I informed the ER Dr that I needed an oral antibiotic as well as an intervenes one to stop MRSA from developing. He stated that all I needed was a strong oral antibiotic. The next day I had to go back to the ER as my hand looked worse. once again, I explained to the ER Doctor what I needed and once again he decided that I wasn’t put on a strong enough antibiotic by the other Doctor, and he was giving me a stronger one. By the fourth day my hand was in much pain and was split open like Jiffy Pop popcorn. It was then determined that I needed emergency surgery to clean all the MRSA out of my finger. This was my ring finger. On my follow up visit with the surgeon, he informed me that I nearly lost my finger as the infection was very close to the bone. Others might say that is good luck. Once again, I say, my friend was looking out for me.

During that same period, my daughter had turned very wild, partying, running away and having sex. Countless nights I would pray to him to always bring her home safe, and he did.

She had been running around with persons from rival gangs, saying how she wasn’t associated with any gang so therefore no one could be mad at her for it. One day she was gone, we lived in a cul-de-sac, a car, that I didn’t recognize, circled back and very slowly pulled in front of my yard, as I looked inside to see who was in this car, I saw the passenger lean back and the driver pointed a gun in my direction, if he would’ve shot he would’ve shot me right in the face, it was at that time that I asked for his help and he directed me to not appear scared and look straight at them, after I did this the driver lowered the gun and slowly drove off. I know that he protected me that day.

Once again, while living in this house we had a cat named Chulo. The kids brought it to my attention that something was wrong with the cat. He didn’t eat and he spent all day and night in our bathroom sink. I went down and tried to talk to him, tried to get him to move but he would not. I was very afraid for my cat. I then began to say out loud, ” You can perform miracles, you can bring people back from the dead,’ You can make people with all sorts of illnesses healed.’ Please bring my cat to me’ please do not let him die. The next day I took him to the vet and they found he had a urinary blockage. I explained that I didn’t want him to die but I didn’t have the money for a big procedure, the clinic turned my bill into a group that helps people with vet bills, and they paid the whole $300 bill. The vet told me my poor cat was so lethargic and close to death that they didn’t even have to use anesthesia.

A man from our church was sitting with the rest of us waiting for services to begin when we noticed that he was responding oddly and acting oddly. A congregation member took him to the ER, it was determined that he had 2 strokes and a heart attack. The Doctors said that technically he shouldn’t have lived but we all have the same friend in common and he saved him.

I was to have knee replacement surgery on my left knee, I had gone for my pre-surgery physical in 2021, they had done a chest x-ray. A nurse called and told me that they found an artifact on my lung, quite honestly, at first, I found the description of what they found quite comical. I kept thinking, “What did they find some kind of treasure on my chest x-ray?” I had stage 1 lung cancer. They told me that I would need a lobe of my right lung removed. After the surgery my doctor explained that I was moved up to stage 2 as when they did my surgery, they found a lymphoid with cancer and due to the fact, they wanted me to do 4 weeks of light chemo, prior to this I had been working with lung cancer and after during chemo. Oddly, when I found out I had cancer, briefly, I was scared but it quickly turned to calmness as I had decided I was going to either beat the cancer or I was going home to be with him. I considered it a win, win situation.

My husband was nearly killed in an accident over a year ago when he was pinned between a semi-trailer and still is somewhat disabled and I had a horrible fall in the bathroom at my work almost a year ago. My husband receives Workman’s Comp payments. I, however, wasn’t even receiving enough Workman’s Comp to pay my bills and even though my doctor stated I needed surgery on my right knee, the surgery was denied, the doctor wanted to try jell shots to alleviate some of my pain till I could have surgery and they denied it. Meanwhile, we have fallen behind more than a month on our vehicle payments and once I got my husband’s Work Comp attorney involved as an effort to speed up things, they stopped paying me anything. Sadly, one of their first settlement offers included a stipulation that I resign from my job, which how that even should come into play I don’t understand.

My friend is God, in my darkest moments and for a while during this whole work injury fiasco the dark moments were pretty deep and dark and there has been dire moments in my life if not for my faith in God and the fact when I’m feeling particularly like giving up would be much easier, I am reminded that out of anyone else in my life I can always count on him.

Jesus was sent to us to help us. In John 14:6 it states, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. It also says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he sent his son, ‘That whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

This world is becoming darker every day. It is so easy to be overwhelmed and even sometimes consider taken yourself out of this world. You can be around family and loved ones yet still feel you are in a deep, dark, lonely place but if you take a leap and believe with your whole being that life won’t always be easier, but you will feel the incredible power and strength of what having a relationship with God can do for you.

My mother blessed her whole family by teaching them of the only friend you will ever need.

My mother suffers from a very aggressive form of dementia known as Lewy Body Dementia with Parkinsons and while most of the time she doesn’t recognize her own family and friends, she still is heard awake and sleeping singing gospel hymns and she talks about her faith and relationship with God.

Thank you, Mom, for sharing your friend with your whole family.