Today is the celebration of two National Calendar Days that are complementary to one another. First, this is National Shut-In Visitation Day. Secondly, this is National Make a Friend Day. Let’s combine this into National Make a Friend Out of a Shut-in Day. And go VISIT them!
Shut-ins are typically in that condition due to their health and age. They are no longer able to safely get out and do the things they used to do. Many no longer drive. And their friends are either dead and gone or in the same physical condition. Those “golden years” aren’t very golden for them, but it provides us with golden opportunities to serve and minister to them. The origins of this special day cannot be found but hats off to whoever thought of it!
The origins of Make a Friend Day are also unknown. It’s good to have friends, isn’t it. You are glad to have some friends in your life who encourage you and participate with you in all sorts of fun adventures in life.
The need for friends is known by many! Ed Cunningham said, “Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait for the answer.” And, Helen Keller is quoted as saying, “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”1 There is great wisdom in those statements.
How many shut-ins are feeling left behind, in the dark, and lonely from their isolation? For those who can get out, they can go to the store, a restaurant, church, the senior center, and a variety of other places where friendships can be found and established with those of their generation. The true shut-in, though, is stuck in that darkness. They need someone to enter their life, walk with them in the darkness or, better yet, turn on the lights!
And they are desperate to have someone who really cares how they are doing.
Let’s understand something. This isn’t going to be a typical friendship based on phileo love. Romans 12:10 says, “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love (phileo); in honour preferring one another.” This is a friendship love that has lots of reciprocation. This is a love that shares interests, hobbies, and favorite activities. This is a friendship love that goes out to favorite restaurants, shops together, fishes together, enjoys ballgames, and a variety of fun things.
The love for the shut-in is going to be a true agape love friendship, born out of a love for others that doesn’t demand reciprocation for the love to be shown. Romans 13:8 says, “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” Let love be your only debt. Keep trying to pay off that debt. Think of it like this: we owe them our love.
Our Wednesday night prayer bulletin has the names of shut-ins. Do you suppose YOU could be that person in someone’s life? Could YOU adopt a shut-in as your new “friend?” Proverbs 18:24 reminds us, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
And, the day may come in the not-so-distant future where you become one of those shut-ins. Remember the admonition given in Galatians 6:7-9. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (8) For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (9) And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
1https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-make-a-friend-day-february-11
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