Best Friends are Forever

Today is August 13th, 2025.

August 13th, is the birthday of one of my dearest and closest friends. It is very difficult to believe, but my friend, Randy, passed from this life in 2015.

When I think of Randy, I cannot help but think of all the memories we had together. Our fights, and the girlfriend he stole from me. The countless hours on our bikes. Getting our driver’s licenses and our first vehicles.

Friends Sharing Life

Those early years of our lives are sometimes beyond understanding. We weren’t thinking of the future and the memories we were creating. We never thought that one day one of us would be gone and the other would be looking back at our friendship, knowing the other was gone and we could never talk again. We were simply friends sharing life.

Simply friends sharing life. Is that even possible? Friendship, and especially the friendship of our youth, are not simple. Do we take our friends for granted so easily? Why is it that in hindsight, even our fights and the loss of a girlfriend are cherished memories?

When Randy wooed Alison from me, that did not break our friendship. Of course, it hurt but Randy’s friendship was dearer to me than a girl. And I think the secret is hiding there. In many ways, the love of a best friend is deeper than the love between a man and a woman.

From This Life to the Next

I never considered the pain I would feel at the loss of my friend. Even 10 years later. I guess I felt that as long as he was alive, those years were alive because when we talked, we shared the memories of those years.

Randy has passed from this life to the next. Will I see him in heaven? I hope and pray he will be there when I take that step, but I don’t know for certain.

We never really talked about God and life after death. On our last conversation together, we briefly discussed faith in God. And it is to this that I cling. My desperate hope is that Randy had a saving faith I was not fully aware of.

If Randy is not in heaven, then I must carry my loss forever. But I trust Jesus Christ knows my heart better than I do. And in that faith, I trust Jesus Christ to have saved my friend. I did not know what was in Randy’s heart those last years, but Jesus Christ did. So now, I must trust the secrets unspoken will be revealed in that place of eternal life.

And if the love of a best friend on earth is any indicator, then eternal life, and friendship in heaven, must be amazing.