after level thirty-seven

tell me, old friend, do you remember what it
must have felt like to be as close as we were?
to me, you always have been my best friend and
i could say with all honesty that not a day goes
by in which i do not stop to think about you.
from sharing popcorn on sunday afternoons to
spending whole mornings fooling around- we did
almost everything together growing up. oh, how i
miss the sleepovers. while i would be irritated
when you would misplace every toy and every particle
of dust in my room, there was always something about it
that said, i don't mind leaving those things there.
don't remind me how we would go through our yearbooks
pointing out every girl that we thought was pretty
and how you would always tease me for liking someone
in a class with a teacher i had never heard of.
and although we would see each other five days a week,
we still had to make it six days a weeks, didn't we?
our parents must have thought to themselves, they will
never grow old, they can't possibly have lives of
their own without one another. it was impossible.
to think about how every mention or notion of
some kind of brotherly affection made me wonder,
that must describe just how close we are like
salt and pepper. you would be the pepper, because
you always preferred to eat the spiciest things.
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to be quite honest, i recall the day was november eleventh,
two-thousand eleven, the day that i finally witnessed to you,
when i first saw you, you looked almost like a stranger.
by then it was clear that things were going to be different.
you had not changed- always open and friendly with the smile
that had been engraved into my skin when you bit me as a child.
but i changed. for once, i was uncomfortable with joking
around as we usually do and i had a very clear conviction-
i could not let you go on living just to die. i wish i could
explain to you that wanting to hangout with me was not
just a coincidence- it was my desperate plea to God. you see,
i've known for a long time that our friendship was so strong
for a purpose and i had been wanting so badly to bring you
with me to church. but, it was on that night that i realized
truly just how urgent it was for me to share with you my faith.
you may be going to hell if i don't say anything to you now-
but that is not my reason for wanting to share with you!
i can't scare you into heaven. you have to want it first
before you even consider getting in. but, wanting heaven
is simply not enough! can't you see? i want you to want
God! to be able to know Him, to be able to trust His word!
that is what i want for you- i want to share my joy.
called to be the salt...