Dropped Where We Are Supposed To Be

“If the one falls, the other will help the fallen one. But woe to the solitary person! If that one should fall, there is no other to help” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).

I don’t remember the first day I met my best friend, but I know I wouldn’t be the same without her.  We were in college, and I was the Resident Advisor to a floor of 72 women. I was joining the staff in the middle of the term, as the original RA quit (or was fired, I was never really sure….); so enter me, ready to make friends with the world. 

God drops you where you are supposed to be. And he put a very special woman in my life that day – a woman who has stood by my side during breakups and at my wedding; who helped to rock my baby as I was recuperating from surgery. A woman I think of every single day, even if we don’t talk for months. True friends can do that.

A woman who appeared from miles away to be with me as we buried my dad. A woman who I traveled to be with as she buried her stepson this week.

In 2003, she married a wonderful man with two children, earning the title of stepmother in the process.  As they were dating, we would often discuss how things were progressing with the relationship. I knew she loved his kids as much as she loved him, and I was racked with worry.  I knew the journey would not be easy, and I anxiously looked down the path to the future, concerned hers would be filled with conflict and pain. After all, she would be the wicked stepmother.

But, as often happens, I was so wrong.

Simply put, she has proven that parenthood requires love, not DNA. God dropped her where she was supposed to be.

Her stepson was killed in a car accident that happened due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control.  And throughout harrowing days of making arrangements and going through the motions of a funeral, my friend was the epitome of grace. She showed the most beautiful example of kindness towards her stepson’s mother, all the while keeping watch over the rest of her family.

She is so much more than the stepmother.  As far as I am concerned, she’s the fairy godmother.

Over the years I’ve learned the value of a true friend and the gifts God blesses us with through these friendships.  I pray for her family that they find peace in the upcoming days, weeks and years as they learn to adjust to the new normal of their lives.

As I was leaving, her dad said to me, “I’m so glad she met you at Ball State.”

And I replied, “God dropped us where we were supposed to be.”