"pa-TEA-na"

I long to visit you so I can share a spiritual blessing with you that will help you grow strong in the Lord. I'm eager to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. In this way, each of us will be a blessing to the other" (Romans 1:11-12, NLT)

"Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold." That's the ditty that we used to sing with our Girl Scout leader, Mrs. Campbell (Ginger's mother) in the basement of Hopkinsville's First Baptist Church. 

Both relationships have value. Some friendships begin in one's youth & last a lifetime. Some relationships are formed later in life and last only for a season. Yet, they are no less important, especially when both are on the same side of a struggle and coated with a deep faith in the one true God. A spiritual patina. A richness.

Figuratively, patina can refer to any signs of age, which are felt to be natural or unavoidable (or both). Decorator friend, Kathi, often deliberately adds patinas as a part of the decoration of her "found" furniture. Her distressing simulates antiquity in more newly-made objects. The end result is pure "richness."
Friendship enhanced by years also has a richness---but now and again one meets a new friend who seems to come with a richness that belies the length of the relationship. A friendship that fits together---as comfortable as an old shoe and as valuable as many older relationships.

I thought of that richness this morning as I planted flowers in the patina enriched metal baskets that friend Julie had given me when she moved to DC. Looking at the aesthetically appealing metal surface of both the basket and the bird reminded me of the  richness of the relationship we shared......as if we'd known each other for ages. She would be the patina; the rusty coating (older) would be my part in the relationship.

 One of the verses of that Scout tune was so reminiscent of that season of Claudia's cancer care when "new" Julie and I seemed to be a tag team for our mutual friend---both of us working together to benefit another in the household of faith. A rich reciprocal relationship.

You help me,
and I'll help you
and together we will see it through.

Julie is now in DC and yet our friendship continues---it's as rich as the patina on the garden treasures she left me. 

A pa-TEA-na rich cuppa relationship, shared by two in a friendship that is lasting beyond a season.