God's way of teaching lessons

I shouldn't be surprised or amazed at this. It is strange to me how God teaches us lessons. Sometimes they are plain as day. Others can be through adversity, not quite as clear. I've been taught life lessons that if it were not for my stupidity, I might not have needed to learn. I'm speaking of God turning something so bad into something good. Then, there are those times when a lesson is being taught, and you don't realize it until it hits you right in the face. Usually after the fact. That is what happened to me recently. It came from an unlikely source and unfortunate circumstance. I've always been taught to be friendly to others, don't make them feel bad, respect them. One of my grandfathers once told me, "Just keep a few close friends with in your circle, you'll be happier." I have recently come across a saying by George Washington that I have on my blog site. It says "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation." The problem with me is this. If I didn't feel a person was in this area of friendship, I would basically be nice, but not (excuse me for using this overused word) real. I would remain very guarded. Just not being open and honest, but nice (sometimes). I've thought in the past to be open with someone meant having this deep friendship. Otherwise I felt I was just being fake, or someone was being fake with me. Well, due to some major life situations in the last couple of years, my attitude about that has changed. I have started discovering what it means to be 'real' about who I am. Sharing oneself with others, being open and honest is very much what being a follower of Christ is about. Like I said earlier, I was taught to respect your elders, peers, etc... But to actually be a friend of an older person, or even a kid was not something I really thought about. Sure, be nice and all, but their friend? I have enough friends my own age. My thought process was stay within your own age group. I am assuming everyone else has or had the same thought or something similar. In my lifetime I have learned a few things about people. Kids just want your attention, peers just want to see if they are similar to you or just weird, and older folks fall into two categories. One being they want to learn from you to stay current with the times of the day, in order to relate to younger crowds, or they are crusty and think their way is the only way. I prefer the young at heart. This brings me to my point, my latest life lesson. Wendy's grandfather, Hack Hackler, passed away January 18th. It was really quite a surprise considering he didn't have a terminal illness. Hack was always the life of the party, larger than life character. During the time he was in the hospital, he was unable to have many visitors, just family and close friends. I can't remember the number of times I had people from church ask what to do. They all wanted to respect the families wish and not visit, but it was hard for them because they wanted to see him and help somehow. Then at the funeral, the number of people there was a lot. Maybe 200? There was snow and ice all over the place. But the thing that got to me, the lesson I learned right there was this. As people were walking by the family to pay their last respects for Hack, they weren't all his age, not all his very close friends. I saw children who took the morning off school to come, people my age who took off work to be there, and of course his peers. What got me was these people, no matter what their age, were there for Hack. These people all had a memory, a friendship of some level with Hack. He had left some kind of mark on them. He had just been who he was to them, a man who understood what it looked like to be a friend to many. These people weren't all his best buddies, his prayer group pals, his selected few. We were people who were touched by his openness and honesty. I remember sitting there watching everyone walk by and thinking, Jesus Christ had his very close friends, but always was full of love for everyone around him. Hack was very much the same way. What a lesson for me to learn. How fortunate I am to have been able to see this modeled. I just hope as the future becomes the present I will be able to continue to do the same thing.