What does friendship mean to you?

My best friend...

"Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling...of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for?" ~ C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain


Yesterday, my friend, Vicki, posted the above quote on Facebook and it resonated deeply. I've come to realize that the term 'friend' means different things to different people.
For me, it is a term I take quite seriously. I laugh everytime I see I have 200 'friends' on Facebook, knowing full well most are just acquaintances. What does a friend mean to me?
 
First and foremost, a friend is someone I feel 'safe' with, someone who knows me, the good and bad, and persists in loving me without judging. My friendships are marked more by our similarities, in values, in interests, in passions, and most of all, in faith. At my age, I do not share my heart indiscriminately with people. I have come to understand that my heart is a very precious thing.
 
In recent years, I have had a couple of people 'demand' my heart. "I have decided that I want to get to know you". I wondered, "Do I have a say in this?" And there have been others who have treated me like a project, something they can hand over to someone else when they so wish. In both cases, a condescending tone offends me greatly.
 
Years ago I realized that I had One True Friend, the perfect Friend, in Jesus. No one else could meet my demands for unconditional love and noone else treated my heart wtih such respect and gentleness. No one else placed such value in it. No one.
 
On one hand I can count the people I would freely allow in my home at any time, with the messes. I can count on one hand the people to whose homes I would go and feel at home. These are the people I have a 'history' with, people who have been loyal to me in spite of my ups and downs, people who have not gossiped unkindly about me, people who pray for me. I thank God for them. They are diamonds.
 
Thank you, God, for friendship. May I be a friend as You are a Friend.