When we first met, we were just kids, teenagers.
She was a senior and I was a school year behind and a junior.
She had attended the high school her entire career, and I was a transplant from another school.
So, when we shared class time together, it could have been easy to become comfortable with one another, AND in Ms. Hail’s room…..we did.
Even though, there was so much we did not share.
She cheered—I played basketball and ran track.
She was popular and associated with a larger crowd—-I was not so popular and knew a few close friends.
She wore her flaming red hair long—I wore by light-brown hair short.
I was in a serious relationship—-but she seemed to be unencumbered with a boyfriend. 
Yet, even with several differences, we still shared 6th period Psychology class with Ms. Hail, and there, we were friends……..a blessing beyond blessing.

Ms. Hail had a great way of bringing her students out of what was comfortable to pursue, to experience the slightly uncomfortable. 
I remember one particular day; it was a sunny, spring day, and everyone seemed to anticipate the end of school and the summer break.  Ms. Hail’s room created a darker, more intimate classroom than most.  In fact, it became a favorite location for me and a perfect way to end each school day of my junior year.  
Ms. Hail did not organize her student chairs in straight rows all facing in the same direction—-toward the white board or toward the teacher’s desk.    NO.  This beautiful Psychology teacher was more interested in teaching her students how to live in friendship, in community with one another.    This is where I met my friend Julena.

On this school day I remember so well, Ms. Hail gave us a task that changed my life, one that I have since used in my own classroom.   Julena sat near Myra on the other side of the classroom; yet, the entire class seemed connected, intimate, in fact, because of the way we faced each other as we talked.
That day, Ms. Hail did not open her teacher’s textbook to give us notes to write, nor did she ask us to open ours.  Instead, Ms. Hail instructed her students to take out a sheet of paper and to tear it into 24 strips (Creating a strip of paper for each peer……a unique instruction, but one we gladly obeyed).
“Now, I want you to write one nice comment about every single person in the class, and when you finish, I want you to deliver each comment to the person’s desktop.”   As I said, back then, I was a student with just a few friends surviving within an extra-large population of students consolidated into one building, BUT there, in Ms. Hail’s classroom, life was different.   In here…..we were friends…..we were a community. 
Row by Row…..we began writing our comments. Some friends were easy, and I found no struggle penning my comment about them, and some friends……not so easy to write. Julena’s comment was difficult (not because we were enemies); Julena’s comment was difficult because I found I had so much to write about this wonderful friend.

In the Bible, John the apostle of Jesus walked with Jesus in ministry, and John records many of the lessons Jesus taught us about friendships. In John 15, he records for us the words of Jesus, words that instruct how we should love those we call “friend.”
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:  12-13).

That school day in Ms. Hail’s class, I do not remember exactly the words I wrote about each person or the words they delivered to me, BUT this I do remember……Julena was present in the classroom with me, and as we shared a community within Ms. Hail’s classroom……It is there she became my friend.

Julena, I have so enjoyed the way our lives are intersected still today.  Most definitely, we both have a friend in Jesus, and so (even in eternity) we will live in community. Love you Much (your flaming red hair & beautiful, compassionate heart). Most assuredly, I would lay down my life for yours.

God is so amazingly good to bless my life with YOU.
Happy Birthday, Julena.

May today bring you JOY, LAUGHTER, FAMILY,  &  LOVE as we celebrate YOU.
The world would not be the same without YOU.
My life would not ever be complete without YOU.