When strangers become friends...

Every now and then in India I meet someone who very quickly seems as familiar to me as one of my closest friends. And when I return to India it is, in part, to meet those particular people who have become my good friends.

From time to time I have wondered how that can happen so quickly between people who are from completely different cultures. I think that Henri Nouwen gives the answer:

The vision that Jesus gives us is this: That I am unconditionally loved, that I belong to God, and that I am a person who can really trust that. When I meet another person who also is rooted in the heart of God, then the spirit of God in me can recognize the spirit of God in the other person, and then we can start building a new space, a new home, a house, a community. Whether we speak about friendship, community, family, marriage, in the spiritual world we are talking about spirit recognizing Spirit, solitude embracing Solitude, heart speaking to Heart. And where this happens, there is an immense space.