Just a few days ago I spent some time sitting next to a watering hole in West Texas with a good friend of mine. We were dove hunting. Eight years ago I had a detached retina in one eye and a torn retina in the other, requiring seven surgeries in a year’s time. My right eye was damaged significantly, but – praise God – my left eye was repaired to the point where I can still live a fairly normal life. I tell you this because I have always shot right-handed. I have only tried dove hunting a couple of times since all that happened with very little success. My right eye just doesn’t work well enough. So I made the decision to try to hunt left-handed.

My friend knew this was something new for me, so he sat right next to me, which is not what you usually do when hunting doves. Normally you spread out to cover more area, but we sat next to each other that day. He wanted to help me figure out how to shoot left-handed. He gave me pointers and encouraged me. And we also had the chance to visit and catch up on each other’s lives.

We talked about our families, our children and our grandchildren. We talked about some of our previous hunting trips, which included by father-in-law who is now in heaven. We talked about him and shared memories and spoke about how much we both miss him. We enjoyed the time we were able to spend together.

Friends are important. We should cherish them and never take them for granted. Especially not our best friend.

John 15:13–15 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

Our best friend has given us what we need more than anything else: the guarantee of life forever because He paid for our sins. And He showed us how to be a friend as well.

Cherish your friends and be sure to take time to be with them.

P.S. I only shot at nine doves that day, and I got four of them.