Friends

We heard from a friend the other night, before we left on this trip to Hawaii.  They are some of a few folks we really call 'friends' here in Australia, and being about our age, they've just joined a group loosely called the "Grey Nomads', those people who sell up, buy a 'caravan' (sans camels), and take off in something called a motorhome or trailer, fairly without a plan.  These folks headed west about 6 months ago, into the vast outback and surrounds of this huge continent.  

When the call was over, I was lonely and got to thinking, "What really is a 'friend'?

And then almost as soon as I had posed the question, my phone buzzed with the name of a friend from 50 years ago. 

I was startled, of course, wondering if he’d called with purpose or had just pocket dialled.  Thanks to the wonder of technology, I was talking to them within minutes.  Sure enough, he had sorta ‘accidently’ called me, but we all agreed the event was fortuitous.   We talked for 30 minutes, the time falling away like it was yesterday.  We felt twice blessed.

I read somewhere that if you can die saying you've had five good friends, you've had a good life.  Ain't that the truth.  

I'll have to say, maybe because of the dynamics of friendships (you really  have to get along with both spouses, their kids, and all the situations that come with the friends you meet). But if you manage that, you’ll have some real “soulmates” with whom you can be spontaneous, challenged and totally honest.  

Fortunately for us, I think Tony and I are the best of friends and have been for the last 55+ years.  This, I believe, is what God intended in marriage.   But someone at church made a comment the other day that made me pause. She said, “Oh, we've never been to their house; I guess we're just not in the right “social circle".

I thought about that a long time.  Should we even have "Social circles?"

Did Jesus have 'social circles"? 

"No", you may say, “if anything, Jesus was a “social circle” breaker.  He invited himself to the tax collector’s house, socialized with the downcast and the outcast.  On at least one occasion, He was heard to say, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12ff)

I wonder how long it took His listeners to pick up on the sarcasm in those words?

As we lead up to Easter, let me ask you this:  

Did Jesus have friends …. anyone who really 'got' who He was? We might say, “His disciples”, but the record shows that more often than not, those poor fellows missed the point entirely. But other than them, did Jesus have someone who He could just “hang out with”, completely as Himself?

I think we all know the answer.  My heart tugs a bit when I think of Him saying in Matthew 8:20, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”

And don’t forget His description, put out there by the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 53:3), “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem.”

On and on it goes.  As we think of Easter coming up, have a thought of how it would feel to have NO ONE who really understood you, who you could turn to in a crisis, or even just when you were happy ...... How must Jesus have missed Heaven so, and yet He came to us.  

Aren't we so blessed to have Him, as not only a Saviour but as Someone who really KNOWS us, our Creator and Comforter? 

And how precious are His words from John 15:13-14, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command.”

Hug a friend today, okay?

Marsha