Friends with their simple acts of love and their compassionate understanding never fail to turn my gray skies blue or at least help me to carry on till it does. And often when I appreciate such amity I stop and try to remember how our friendship became so strong and sincere. As usually I recall some landmark experience of shared love. But always conclude that love grows between friends through frequent meetings where we share our day to day experiences, troubles and joys without secretiveness. And when Jesus says, in John ch. 15:13 "that the greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them, He reminds us of the exigency in friendship without self-sacrificing love.

So Jesus life proves beyond doubt that He is the best friend a person can have. He sacrificed all for me and is my most trustworthy friend. Jesus becomes a closer friend the more of often I come to Him with an open heart in prayer. My own failings in this respect is of course an obstacle I fight with daily.

A very important difference between worldly friends and Jesus, is His forgiving generously seventy times seven in my case-continuously. My numerous weaknesses always get me landed in some sort of sin and if  it weren't for Jesus  love and forgiveness, I'd be loaded down with guilt and doomed to hell. He never abandons me in my sorrow or rejects me in my sinful state. I recall here the words of a soul-stirring song-

"Should you turn and forsake Him
He will gently call your name
Should you wander away from Him,
He will always take you back."

Indeed, He has taken me back a million times though I myself hammered the nails into His hands and feet, through my sinning. When I ask myself the question "Why does Jesus love me?" I find it surpasses my lowly human reasoning. So I turn to the Bible and in Luke ch. 6:35 tells me that "He is good to the ungrateful and the wicked." He is merciful and as 1 John 4:8 says, "God is love." Then I ask, "why does Jesus forgive me when he could punish me?" and Jesus my friend through the Holy Spirit shows me in John ch. 3:17 "For God did not send his son into the world to be its judge, but to be it's savior." And when I consider the steadfast love of the Lord which never ceases and his mercies which never comes to an end, I wonder "Why is God so faithful to me?" Jesus reveals through 2 Timothy 2:13 "If we are not faithful, he remains faithful because he cannot be false to himself." For he himself has declared in Jeremiah 31:3 "I have loved you with an everlasting love. My faithfulness to you is unshakable. "

Now someone might ask, "But what about times when events go contrary to your plans, when your dreams get shattered and you know Jesus could have prevented it from happening. Then is Jesus still your dearest friend? "O yes! Jesus will always be my friend. Things have surely gone wrong in my life but Jesus has saved me from despair each time and urged me to praise God for His higher and perfect plans for me. Then from the misfortune emerged fortunes of strength to face the trails and grace to become an instrument that glorifies God. I feel this experienced by all whom Jesus be friends.

The Bible affirms my feeling in John ch.11; here we read the touching story of Jesus love for his friend. Martha, Mary and Lazarus were beloved friends of Jesus. Once when Lazarus fell ill, his sisters, who loved him dearly, informed Jesus about it, their dream was that Jesus would heal their brother. However, Jesus plan was not to heal Lazarus but to raise him from  death, thus he would bring greater glory to God and increase everyone's faith. So we find that He stayed where He was for two more days and when He arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been buried four days. We all know the rest, about how Jesus wept for His beloved friend and was moved by the sisters' love for their brother. He rewarded their childlike faith in him, which prompted them to fall at His feet and say, "Lord, if you had been here, our brother wold not have died! But we know that even now God will give you whatever you ask him for." Besides the lesson in faith and Jesus' compassion for his friends, we observe here that Jesus plan was certainly higher and more perfect than of  the sisters."

So we see that in all things, God works for good with those who love Him Romans 8:28. To be the friend of the  Almighty is a blessing too great for so unworthy a sinner as me. But as I said before the philosophy of our God who be friends sinners so generously surpasses my human comprehension. Anyhow, I am glad each time I recall what the Church propounds. Namely, God created me to know Him, to love Him and serve Him. In simple terms, He created me to be his friend. For this mercy I hope to thank Him from now unto eternity. Because as Jesus says in
John15:16 I did not choose Jesus; Jesus chose me and appointed me to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. In John 15:4 Jesus says," You cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me." In verse 8 Jesus says further, " My father's glory is shown by your bearing much fruit; and in this way you become my disciples" and Jesus called His disciples' His friends. He said," And you are my friends if you do what I command you…. This, then is what I command you: love one another." I often listen to my worldly friends and end up with them in evil when I should be giving them the friendship of Jesus I pray and hope that you all will too, that I may listen to my divine friend and share His love with all others.

Amen

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