A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24
Heavenly Father, you made me, so there’s not a lot… no, there’s nothing I can tell you about me. When I confess my sins, I never inform you of anything. I’m only echoing the call to greater freedom whose origin is in the concert hall of the gospel. When I express a need, the repository of heaven has preceded my cry, readying sufficient grace and supplies beyond my imagination. How I praise you for being privy and prior to everything, Father. O, the freedom the peace the assurance…
However, my muse and meditation this morning is about friendship. As you know, I’ve always been quite guarded when it comes to friendship. I’ve lived in a large pool of people, but have most often preferred to swim alone. Notice me, but don’t know me has been a pretty constant theme in my story. Fear, insecurity, selfishness, control issues… there’s any of a number of reasons why it’s been this way. But this morning I’m relishing the fact that you didn’t leave things that ruinous way, Father.
I praise you for sending Jesus, not only into the world, but also into my heart. I praise you for befriending me in the gospel. I dare whisper the phrase, “I am a friend of God,” only because of what you’ve done for me in Jesus. For Jesus is the quintessential friend that sticks closer than a brother. Like fraternal Velcro, He’s the friend who loves in every season-born for my adversities… present in every complexity… the reason I enjoy any prosperity.
But Father, I also praise you for letting me know how Frodo felt having Sam… how Butch Cassidy felt having Sundance… how Pooh felt having Piglet. I praise you for making friendship a non-optional part of life. I praise you for the gift of a few very dear friends, whom you handpicked to thaw this frozen heart. I will neither die alone nor live the rest of my life as a lonely man. Help me to give my friends a better taste of friendship fueled and formed by the gospel, until the day we commit one another to God for eternity. So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ loving name.
