The Witness

In legal terms, a witness is someone who offers testimony, words that help a jury and a judge determine a sentence.In everyday life, witnessing simply means to see, to hear, to observe.And life gives us countless opportunities to witness.We witness change.We witness our children growing up, building lives of their own.We witness our families transforming, expanding, multiplying.We witness friendships, how they begin, how they stretch across time, how they evolve from childhood into adulthood.Sometimes, we are given the extraordinary blessing of keeping those early friendships.To witness that kind of continuity is something worth celebrating.Other times, life brings us new friendships, formed in different seasons, even later in life, in our 40s or 50s.And those friendships carry a different flavor, a different depth, because they come with purpose, shaped by experience, understanding, and timing.If you find yourself witnessing friendships, your own or those around you, pause and recognize the blessing in it.To see someone growing in love…to see someone living out their story, their testimony…that is a gift.So look around.There are people loving one another.Maybe they are your friends. Maybe they are not.But celebrate them anyway.Because recognizing love in others becomes love that you carry and share.BW