The Color of Friendship

What color is friendship?

Lydia Rosebush recently told her 5 year old son that he was in need of a haircut.  Jax decided that he wanted to get his hair cut really short like his friend Reddy.  He thought it would be fun to look like Reddy so that their teacher would be confused since she couldn’t tell them apart.  Jax and Reddy are about the same size, have engaging smiles, and twinkles in their eyes.  Because of their friendship, Jax didn’t even consider the different colors of their skin to be a noticeable factor in what his teacher saw.

Muaharrem is a young deaf man from Istanbul, Turkey.  His sister teamed up with some of his neighbors and a production crew to give him a special day.  While Muaharrem’s neighbors were learning sign language, the Leo Burnett ad firm and Samsung spent a month strategically setting up cameras around his neighborhood.  The day of the shooting, Muaharrem is first greeted with sign language from the man behind the counter in a local shop.  When he steps outside, another man speaks to him using sign language.  When he accidentally bumps into a woman she signs an apology.  Next, as Muaharrem gets into a cab, the driver signs “Hello” to him.  The taxi driver takes him to a public square where he is greeted by his neighbors signing to him.  He is overcome with emotion at the efforts his neighbors have exerted to learn a way to communicate with him.

Cleansheet Communications produced an ad for Canadian Tire Corporation as part of its sponsorship for the Rio Olympics 2016.  The commercial begins with a group of young boys playing basketball.  A loose ball rolls onto a neighbor’s sidewalk.  As one of the boys retrieves the ball, he notices a boy in a wheelchair on the porch.  The two boys exchange greetings and then he returns to play.  Later, as the boy in the wheelchair looks outside, he sees a basketball on his porch.  He takes the ball next door and notices the boys riding on tricycles, scooters, and one on a chair in a wagon so that he will feel comfortable playing with them.  The ad ends with “When the best of us steps up, our nation stands a little taller.”

I’m thinking that if friendship has a color, it must be love.  May we all color well this week.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

Romans 12:3

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Luke 6:31

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

John 13:34

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Romans 12:10

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 10:24-25

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

I John 4:11