The King :: faithful treasured friend

One of the most incredible of his miracles in my life to date, is the gift of grace to me in a dear special man. His name is Kingsley.....who became as a father to a daughter for me.   We met each morning for many months at a local coffee shop to start the day with conversation and a coffee.  This was after he had swum a dozen or so laps at the pool.....as one does in their early eighties.  

He always put the sugar in my coffee and reserved a special seat for me.  He treated me with dignity and interest and a position of honor and would introduce me as his surrogate daughter.   He shared exciting tales of celebrity meetings and overseas adventures and also the ordinary things of life.  He had written many short stories and shared them with me over those months. 

We became the best of friends and he was God with skin on.  He loved me and taught me how a father loves a daughter and I came to see God as my father.  Finally, I had a true view of who he (God) was and was no longer afraid of him being angry and disappointed or ashamed of me.  I was a daughter of the most, high King and nothing else mattered.  

My shoulders started to straighten up and I lifted my head high.  I could feel the love of God almost as tangibly as the comfort of sunshine on my face on a winters day.  

When I would take a walk in the morning or evening, the words….you are a daughter of the king, the most high God would echo in my mind and I began to run into his arms deeper and deeper and my confidence in that identity was finally formed and growing. 

In finding this new relationship, after surrendering all control of my life to him, the healing came.  The gift of the very thing I had missed was right there in my life for the taking.  A real life "surrogate" father to love, delight and heal my soul.

The heart of the father had been revealed and I felt like I was living for the first time in the sense that my real life as the woman I had always been created to be and now revealed had just begun.  I knew who I was.  Some people might have thought I had changed dramatically yet I felt like I was coming “back” to myself and stepping into who I truly was rather than the broken impostor that had stood in my shoes for many years.   

My dearest friend "the king"  saw who I was straight away.  He believed in me and cherished me like his own daughters and would always encourage me to new heights with the words "your doing everything right....keep doing what you are doing".  There is something very empowering about spending time with people who know who they are, where they have been and who they belong to.  His gift to me was to believe in who God was within me.

We sat and talked about the future and he gave his blessing when I moved down south.  He shared with me that he didn't often remember his dreams but before I left he had one that assured him that I was going to be just fine.

Not that he didn't try to persuade me to move back home with many regular letters and hints that my chair was still vacant at the cafe each morning and an empty sugar sachet to remind me of the special place I had and the prayer he would say for me each and every day.

I loved to receive his mail and in more recent times a little encouraging text message.  He embraced technology and his capacity to care for and encourage others seemed without limits.

I know heaven shall applaud and God will welcome this faithful servant into the courts of the most high "King".

Such grief for not being able to share one more story and coffee ........ but forever grateful and humbled by who you were in my life.  See you on the other side dear friend.