Life is like a rainbow.  You need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear  - Unknown

I had a friend once.  We used to do everything together.  The longer we were friends, the less time we spent together "just because".  Instead, whenever she needed something she would call. When times were tough, she would call. When her baby girl was sick, she would call..  When the cat ran away, she would call.  When she got laid off from work she would call. After a while, I realized that she never called anymore, just to say “hi”. Never called to go out and in fact, started to say no when I would ask her to meet me at the park. She would be too busy. I would ask her to go to the mall. She didn’t have any money. I would ask if she wanted to come over to my house to hang out. She didn’t have time. I even invited myself to her house. It wasn’t clean enough for me to come over on that particular day.  I cared for her very much, but after a period of time I felt sad and put upon.  I didn't want to be a rainy day friend.*Sigh*

One day I took a step back and asked what I was getting from this relationship? The answer was stress. I found myself slowly distancing myself from her.  Never really telling her why.  I just did.

Several weeks after I started distancing myself from her, I was praying to God asking for strength on a particular problem and I felt despair wash over me. Completely shocked I realized that I WAS that woman. I treated God as MY rainy day friend.  The one person in the whole world that I loved and trusted, I treated as my personal “fix it” confidant, but only during the “dark” times in my life.

I picked up the phone, called my friend, and explained to her that I was sorry that I had distanced myself from our friendship and I explained why I had started doing this. She started to cry and said that she had no idea that she was taking advantage of me the way that she had. “You have always been there for me and I guess I got used to it” she said. We are now great friends, in the good times and in the bad.

It wasn’t as easy picking up that phone and calling God. I was embarrassed. Ashamed. I was just like my friend. God has always been there for me and I knew that I had been taking Him for granted.

This all had occurred many, many years ago. How has my relationship changed with God? He is now an everyday Friend. I no longer call Him just to bail me out of a mess. Instead, when I see the leaves popping out in the spring, I thank Him. When my day is flowing and the world is right, I thank Him. I stop a dozen times during my day to talk to Him about everything and about nothing. When I say I talk to him, I mean really talk to him with real words; sometimes out loud, sometimes in prayer. The more I do this, the more I find things to be thankful for. I still go to him with my problems. My “issues” are no less than they were back then, but the interesting part is now I am learning how to resolve those issues. Now I am really listening to Him. The stronger our friendship grows, the more He points out to me the beauty in the world. Beauty that has always been there but I never took the time to notice.  The most beautiful thing of all being our friendship.

God does not want to be a rainy day friend, but an everyday friend.