Article October 23, 1978 Issue

Lasting friendship: a taste of heaven

BARBARA JUERGENS FOX

"This is my friend."

What contentment this statement implies! It connotes affection, trust, sympathy, unselfishness. "A friend loveth at all times,"^{Prov. 17:17;} we read in the Bible. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says, "There are no greater miracles known to earth than perfection and an unbroken friendship."^{Retrospection and Introspection, p. 80;}

Friendship has a special status among human relationships, partly because of its unlimited possibilities. Family members may be few. We usually can't choose our classmates and fellow workers. Marriage involves exclusivity in the sense of "forsaking all others," as the traditional vows promise. But there are no barriers for friendship—not race, or age, or gender. A friend can be anyone we know well and are fond of. (He can even be a relative!)

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