Real Friend

There are "friends" who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24 NLT). As most people know, finding a real friend is not easy. It takes effort on our part to be vulnerable to another human being. Every time we attempt that we run the risk of being hurt. Yet when we do find that friend there is great joy.

I have had the joy of such friendships only rarely. It seems God has brought people into my life only to have them move on to a new life somewhere else in the world. I suppose as I've made friends with people who have dedicated their life to God's service I should not be surprised. Yet the pain of their departure is not easily tempered with this understanding. It takes faith for me to let them go; faith to realise that God brought them into my life and that both of us were enriched in such a way as to be useful to God.

"Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"--and he was called a friend of God (James 2:23b ESV). Abraham is one of my Bible heroes. He, too, left everything on the word from God to leave his home to a land he didn't know. He left everyone behind except his wife. Abraham's belief and trust in God's word allowed God to act in Abraham's life: to establish a covenant promise, and to enable Abraham to become a friend of God.

If a real friend sticks closer than a brother, then friendship with God is beyond description. He is ever faithful, ever loving, and He becomes our Father when we're adopted into His family. What joy can be found to match His love? I know of nothing in this world.