I recently celebrated my 57th birthday, and spent much of it thanking the many friends and family members who sent me warm birthday greetings. Their kindness was so touching; they made me feel loved, more than I regard myself. Even on otherwise ordinary days, I have a circle of friends who ride with me on the bus to work; we laugh and joke together and look out for each other's welfare and happiness. I've developed many good friends at church, and recently reconnected with some old high school classmates whom I haven't seen in decades; we now eagerly share reminiscences and stores about our spouses and children. What a priceless blessing friendship is!
That blessing comes from God, I know. In my younger days I was shy and reserved, and didn't make friends easily. But over the years the Lord has sustained me and my family through the love and support of others, and I've come to value these friends over everything but the Lord Himself and my family--indeed, I count them as virtual family. He has blessed me with more openness and tolerance, as I've come to appreciate how much I owe my friends, and I've learned so many valuable lessons about love and that great Eternal Family that I never would have had I remained shut up in my little shell.
Every day we should remember and give thanks to the Lord for our friends, and never ignore them or take them for granted. We owe our truest friends so much; we know who they are and can always count on them: "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." (Proverbs 17:17). This was demonstrated just a few days ago when a swarm of tornadoes swept across the American midwest; a mother was grievously injured when she lay over her three young children as their house collapsed around them; the eldest crawled out just as the storm passed and ran to the neighbors for help, and they rushed back, pulled the mother out, bound her wounds as best they could, and carried her to an ambulance, thus saving her life--even though their own homes had just been destroyed in the same storm!
"A friend that sticketh closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24) will also give us the instruction and correction we need, and not just tell us what we want to hear. "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." (Proverbs 27:17) The honesty and frankness of genuine friends are set forth in the maxim, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend" (Proverbs 27:6).
The Apostle Paul set the model for how we should live with each other as friends:
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:31, 32)
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:12-14, ESV)
If we live this way with our friends, neighbors, and family, we come to understand what Heaven is, and create a piece of it right here on earth. We fulfill a great commandment from our Lord, and follow his example--and are knit to Him in the greatest friendship of all:
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (John 15:12-15)
Don't let a day go by without embracing a friend; thanking him or her just for being there for you; or doing a friend some kindness, great or small. The best way to make and keep good friends is to be one yourself!
Tom Fleming
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