More Than Fair Weather Friends

My family began attending Eastern Meadows more than fifteen years ago. I was a pretty shy kid and didn’t talk much. Plus, everybody in Sunday School had grown up with each other, and here I was, the New Kid. It wasn’t easy to fit in. I made a friend, though, in my Wednesday Night Girls Class. Our class was made up of junior high and high school girls. Then when I started school at Alabama Christian in the seventh grade, my friend was also my science teacher’s aide. So I got to see her almost every day.

The point for this FeMail isn’t who this friend is. The point is: she’s still my friend more than fifteen years later. You see, I’ve had friends from high school. I don’t keep in touch with them, nor do they keep in touch with me. I had friends in college…from each of the three colleges I attended. I only keep in touch with one of them, but she lives in Italy now and we just email occasionally. I’ve had friends from work, from all the jobs I’ve had since high school. I don’t keep in touch with any of them. I don’t really go out with friends from my current job, either.

Every time I think about lasting friendships, I think – all my good friends are friends from the church. I don’t think that’s just some coincidence. I think it is because we have common goals in our Christianity and our goal of making a home in heaven. Then I think about Jesus. He should be my friend, too. He knows just as much about me as my friend from church. In fact, He knows more. He is there for me when I am tempted or when I am having a bad day. He’s been there (Hebrews 2:18; 4:15).

It doesn’t end there. We shouldn’t just buddy up to God when we think we need Him. The truth of the matter is we need Him just as much on the good days as we do on the bad. I guess it is human nature to go to God only when we’re in trouble. If you think about your friendships on earth, they aren’t set up that way, are they? If I have a great day, I know I can call my friend to share the good news, and she can do the same with me. Likewise, we should remember how God is our friend always.

How is your relationship with God? Do you talk to Him on a daily basis?