Friend of God

This past weekend, I had the privilege of officiating at my cousins wedding at Belknap Hot Springs in Oregon. The hot springs and the gardens that surrounded it’s landscape were absolutely breath-taking, but what impressed me even more was the friendship and camaraderie shared between my cousin and a group of guys he has grown up with.

These guys met each other playing rollerblade hockey when they were 8 and 9 years old, and they haven’t stopped hanging out since. They have drained pantries and fridges together, gone on dates together, journeyed through high school and college together, and laughed and cried together. Without even knowing this group of gentlemen, one could easily tell that they were close, more like brothers than friends. During the toast, the bride talked about how accepted she was by this band of brothers and how she knew that no matter what the need and no matter what time of day or night, she could call on them and they’d come running. What a picture of friendship!

I think it’s something we all long for; to belong to a group and to know that no matter what happens in life that someone has our back. Done right, it actually sounds like a healthy picture of church.

In John 15, Jesus tells His disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

Jesus calls us friends. The God of the universe calls us friends. The alpha and omega, the almighty, all powerful one calls us friends. And He promises that no matter the need or the time of day, we can cry out to Him and He will be with us (Isaiah 14: 14). He will never leave us. In fact, He’s such a good friend that He even knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6: 8).

So we belong to the love of the Trinity, but we also belong to this community of faith. Students, teachers, administration, staff, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. We are a part of His family, we make up His church, and together we bring Jesus to life for this community. If we have a need, day or night, we should be able to call on each other. If we need a shoulder to cry on or an ear that will listen, we should be able to call on each other. If we need to share a laugh, we should be able to call on each other. If we desire to go deeper in our walk with God, we should be able to call on each other.

My prayer is that this community would realize that in Christ we have not just a Savior, not just a Lord, not just a King, but a friend, and that in realizing the power of that friendship we would reach out to all of those around us with the same love and passion that Christ extends to us. When we do that, Jesus comes to life on the campus of WWU!