A few months ago my son’s girlfriend joined our family for dinner at our home.  During dinner, she made a couple of comments about her “BFF.”  The comments were made in the context of “I told my BFF about…” and “Then my BFF said…”

Everyone around the table appeared to understand what she was talking about except for me.  I finally asked her, “What does BFF mean?”  Her response was, “Oh, BFF means my ‘best friend forever.’”  Apparently the BFF abbreviation is common among people who make use of the new ways that are available to communicate with each other, such as text messaging, Facebook, etc.

Although the BFF abbreviation hasn’t been around for very long, good friendships and “best” friends have always played a very important role in the lives of individuals.

The one thing I remember most about my last day of school at St. Mark’s Grade School (May, 1971), was something that happened after the school day ended and we were released to go home.  As I was walking toward the school bus, I noticed a group of girls (eighth grade graduates) standing near the bus crying uncontrollably.  They were hugging each other, saying their goodbyes, and acting as though someone had just died.

Can you guess what they were crying about?

It turns out that some of them were enrolled in Academy of Our Lady (Spalding Institute) High School, while others were enrolled in Bergan High School, while still others were going to be attending one of the local public high schools.  They were all crying because they were “best friends” and were no longer going to be able to see each other every day at school.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing (and hearing).  All I could think of was, “When are you girls going to get a life?  There’s this electronic device on the wall in your home called a telephone.  You can actually use the device to call and visit with each other whenever you want, so why are you acting as though you’re never going to see (or talk to) each other again?”

I guess you could say I was being a little insensitive about the emotional pain they were going through, but I just couldn’t relate to how they were feeling.  The last thing I was concerned about was where my friends were going to be attending high school.  I just wanted to get on the bus for the last time and say goodbye to that school forever.

If you’re a mature adult, you know that throughout life good friendships come and go.  You probably haven’t heard from your childhood “best friend” in years (unless he or she is a relative of yours).  If you have been able to stay in touch with one or more of your childhood friends, you probably don’t get the opportunity to visit with them very often.

None of us has any assurance that the person who is our best friend today will still be there for us tomorrow.  That person could be taken from us by death, or could decide to start focusing his or her attention on someone else.  On a strictly human level, there really is no such thing as a BFF.  But on a spiritual level, each of us really does have a “Best Friend Forever.”

Let’s take a look at a few definitions from Webster’s Dictionary:

Best – Excelling all others. 
Friend – One attached to another by affection or esteem… a favored companion.
Forever – For a limitless time… at all times.

Your guardian angel was assigned to you by Almighty God as your favored companion.  He excels above all humans, is with you at all times, has great affection and esteem for you, and will be with you until the end of your life (and for all eternity if you make it into Heaven).  In other words, your guardian angel is the perfect “Best Friend Forever.”

So what can your BFF do for you?  Since he never sleeps (because he is a celestial spirit), he is always standing by, ready to assist you.  Even though he does a lot for you that you don’t see, he is available to take action when you request his assistance, but before he will act on your behalf, you must first acknowledge his presence and ask for his help.

On Monday of last week, I had a hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at the Peoria County Courthouse, in Peoria, Illinois.  I didn’t get finished with the hearing until 2:40 p.m.  After the hearing, I was apprehensive because I had another hearing that was scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at the Tazewell County Courthouse, in Pekin, Illinois.  (I had expected the hearing in Peoria to take no more than 30 minutes, but unfortunately there were some unexpected delays that came up.)

After the hearing in Peoria, I had to return to my office from the courthouse, pick up my client’s file for the hearing in Pekin, walk to my car which was parked near my office, and then drive to the Courthouse in Pekin (without speeding).  Since I had no way of contacting the judge (or the judge’s clerk), I asked my guardian angel to go ahead of me and arrange everything for me so that I would not have any problem with the judge when I arrived.

As I was driving to Pekin, I also asked my guardian angel to save a parking space for me in front of the courthouse so I would be able to quickly park when I arrived at the courthouse.  (I learned the “save a parking space strategy” from Georgette.  When we had young children, she always asked her guardian angel to save parking spaces for her when she traveled because of the difficulty involved in getting our children from the car to wherever she was going.)

When I arrived at the courthouse at 3:16 p.m., there was one empty parking space waiting for me on the street closest to the courthouse.  I parked my car, walked into the courthouse, went through security, and then hustled up to the second floor courtroom.

When I walked into the courtroom, the judge was preoccupied with another case and didn’t seem to notice that I was late.  When she finished with the lawyers on the other case, she looked up, saw me sitting at one of the counsel tables, looked down at the printout of the hearing schedule on her desk, and then asked me if I was ready to proceed.  My response was, “Yes judge, I’m ready.”  We then proceeded with the hearing.

Do you believe that what I just described to you would have happened regardless of whether or not I had asked my guardian angel for assistance?  Would your guardian angel assist you if you asked for help?

A word of warning: Asking your guardian angel for help is not enough to get the job done.  There is one more precondition that is necessary before he can respond to your request for assistance.  Since I’ve run out of space here, I’ll have to explain it to you next week.  In the meantime, you may want to give your BFF some long overdue attention.

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