Our friends are precious treasures that the Lord gives to us. I'm not talking about "Facebook" style friendships but the ones that remain for a lifetime. The ones who know all our good and all our bad and still love us.
A Friend Loves At All Times
I am not a person who has a lot of friends. My deep friendships are few, but the ones I have are like sisters or brothers to me.
"A friend loves at all times,
And a brother is born for adversity."
-Proverbs 17:17
and
"A man who has friends must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."
-Proverbs 18:24
You know who your true friends are because, no matter what, they stick by you. They love you in a way, like God does. They love you when you do bad and they love you when you do good. Like God, they will be honest with you when you make mistakes and tell you that you need to correct them. They rejoice with you and they cry with you.
To have a friend Proverbs tells us, we have to be friendly. We can't expect to have deep friendships if we stay guarded and closed off all the time. We have to open ourselves up. We have to be vulnerable.
Some friendships are so deep they go beyond even the closeness of our family. This is the friend "who sticks closer than a brother" as Proverbs 18:24 says. They are dependable. They are always there to listen to us, to make time for us. These are the friends who truly know us.
If the Lord allows us to grow old, we may lose some of our friends. Death will remove them from us. It is a sad time when we lose our beloved friends but we can look back on a life of caring and sharing that we had with them and that brings joy. There will be rejoicing when, in Heaven, we get to see them again. If you haven't shared Christ with your friends, don't wait.
A Life Well Lived
As I write this one of those precious friends of mine is near death. She has loved people more selflessly than anyone I ever met. She has been a giver even though she often had little worldly things to give. No matter what you gave her she always had something to give you back.
She has had a tough life. She has lived through things that would have broken most people but she carried on mostly with a smile. Most people would never imagine the sorrows she has dealt with.
She has a tough demeanor. She's one of those women with spit and fire that you might just be a little afraid to cross. Mostly this side came out when she saw someone being mistreated. She has not been afraid to do and say what needed to be said and done.
Memories
My world will dim somewhat when she passes. The memories that we have shared over the many years of our friendship will be all that I carry forward. I pray that you find in your life a "friend who sticks closer than a brother". Your life will be so much richer for the experience.
A lifetime of friendship has added so much value to my life and hopefully to hers as well. I hope in my friend's life that I was "a friend that loved at all times". Deep friendships help us practice the all forgiving love that the Lord has for us. They are a foreshadowing of our relationship with God.
God Brings Us Friends
I truly believe that God has friends picked out for us. People to whom we can always go with whatever burden we have or whatever joy. People who will be happy for us, not jealous, when good things happen and people who will lift us up when we need it. People who will help us feel the hope of God when things seem hopeless.
If you have such a person in your life you are truly blessed. If you don't, pray that God sends one to you. Maybe YOU can be that special friend to someone else who desperately needs it. This world is meant to be faced together, not alone.
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