A lot has happened in both of our lives since that day, yet the bond of friendship remains strong.
Several months ago, my friend received a cancer diagnosis that brought the life she and her family knew to a screeching halt.
Yesterday, my husband and I visited my friend and her husband for the first time since her world had turned upside down. Coincidentally, as I was looking through my hats for one to wear for our visit, I pulled out the hat that she had worn all those years ago for her half marathon. I put it on my head, but it no longer felt like my hat.
So I took the hat with us on our visit to give to my friend.
The woman who greeted me was not the same woman I had remembered. She stood before me with a new strength, radiance, and beauty. Her new identity has painfully and slowly unfolded through a journey into the hot flames of a raging fire. Forged within the fire, she has transformed in every way through a deeper personal encounter with her Maker. She has embraced her Father, Savior, and Friend. And He has held her tight in His loving arms of grace, mercy, and compassion.
I don’t pretend to understand the depth of what she and her family have experienced. Nor do I pretend to understand the significance, if any, that the gift of the hat might have meant to her.
I had held onto the hat because, at one time, it had been a big part of my identity. It represented something that I loved for so many different reasons: running. And it represented a place where I had once felt a sense of belonging. A place where you could be both strong and vulnerable and know you are accepted— two qualities inevitably revealed in a race of any duration.
A little while into our visit, she put the hat on her head. It may have been my imagination, but I am almost sure I saw something shift in her composure.
I had seen the same grit in the eyes of my friend the day she ran her first half marathon. Her eyes focused, and her mind was ready for whatever she may face throughout the race. She had never run such a distance and was trusting God for strength and mercy to finish the race. 
Just as when she ran before, God has surrounded her today with others on this marathon we call life—some who are stronger and some who are weaker. Those who encourage her and those whom she can encourage along the path. The body of Christ functioning in her true purpose.
This morning, I’m a mess as I reflect on the symbolism of the significance of the Gift that God has given to each one of us, should we choose to accept the Gift.
Just as I can only scarcely explain the significance of the hat which now resides on my friend's head, the importance of the gift of salvation through Christ meets me with no adequate words of description.
The significance of the Gift of Salvation means eternity to those who accept and believe.
And this faith, which we can scarcely understand, let alone describe, anchors us deeply in the love of the One who has given us the Gift.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Ephesians 2:8 NKJV
Stay the Course…
Sheila
