Forever Friends

A man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, “Lord, I would like to know what heaven and hell are like.” The Lord led the man to two doors. He opened one and the man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms. Each found it possible to reach the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoon back into their mouth to eat. The man shuddered at their misery and suffering. The Lord said to the man, “Now you have seen hell.” They walked to the other door and opened it. Inside that room the man saw exactly the same thing as in the first room. There was a large table with a large pot of stew in the middle. All the people were equipped with the same long handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking among themselves. The man turned to the Lord and said, “I don’t understand.” The Lord smiled and said, “It is simple. It requires but one skill which they learned in life. You see, they have learned to feed one another, while the greedy people in the other room are still only thinking of themselves.

[John 15:9-17] An English publication once offered a prize for the best definition of a friend. Some received were: “One who multiplies joy and divides grief” and another, “One who understands our silence.” The winning definition was, “The one who comes in when the whole world has gone out.” Friends are with us, period. Trials and hardships not withstanding the friend endures with us. As this definition states, when the world leaves, the friend is entering. Others abandon us during hard times, but a friend is a friend all the time. Jesus, when he walked the earth, was derided by his opponents for those with whom he was a friend. “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners”’ (Matthew 11:19). Friendship in the world is all too often shallow. It rests more on superficial elements such as beauty, status, power or money than anything substantial. Jesus was friends with those who needed him. True friendship is sacrificial in nature. In our noted reading, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one but this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). The ultimate example of friendship is the sacrifice of Jesus for us. God is just such a friend to us. Think of those who have been God’s friends. God did not desert them during the difficult times but remained their friend, even when sometimes hurt was inflicted upon Himself. Paul teaches that while we were yet ungodly and sinners God loved us and acted on our behalf (Romans 5:6-8). In our deepest, darkest hour, God is the friend who stays and comforts and continues to love, all the while forgiving and forgetting. You see, that’s what friends do. In turn, we are taught that since God so loved us, we ought to then love one another (1 John 4:7-21).Christianity is also about friendship. Not friendship as the world practices. It is a friendship taught and practiced by God (John 15:14). Even if the world turns away from us God will not turn away, neither will the brethren (Proverbs 18:24). This is how friends act. Surely, this is what it means, in part, to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1-2). “A friend loves at all times and a brother is born for a time of adversity” (Proverbs 17:17). Believe God – you will be called God’s friend (James 2:23).