A friend to the friendless(Darrell Case) Cheryl saw her standing in the corner. Did she have any friends? Cheryl wasn’t sure. The other girls huddled together. One looked at the girl in the corner. She said something. The others laughed. It was their first day back to school after Christmas. The girl looked poor, with scuffed shoes and a dress that must have come from Goodwell. Her coat had a tear in it. With trembling fingers, she tried to close the rip.

If Cheryl went and talked to her, the others would make fun of her. She would be associated with this girl. She might lose her friends, some who were in the circle. It would be so much easier to join her friends. To make fun of this poor girl, her clothes, her hair. How thin she was.

Yet was this something she wanted to do? She remembered something pastor John said yesterday in youth group. Jesus was born in a stable. He preached to the people from a smelly fishing boat. Peter had fished all night. He got a laugh when he said, smiling. “I bet Peter smelled like fish. Yet Jesus called him as one of his apostles. Even if he smelled like fish.”

Cheryl walked up to the girl. “Hi” she said, smiling. The girl looked up. There was the glint of tears in her eyes. “Hi” she said with a hint of a smile. Throughout the day, Cheryl befriended the girl. Her name was Sally and her mother was in prison for taking drugs.

That night, Cheryl took her home with her. Sally called her grandmother and told her where she was. Sally and Cheryl develop a close friendship. Sally, her mother and grandmother, accepted Christ.

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