Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t go to somebody’s funeral, they won’t go to yours.” Shakespeare expressed the value of friendship in his works – “Thinking of friends and their worth is often enough to drive away an army of fears, regrets, and envies.”

The great children’s classic The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams teaches us that sometimes what we go through for a friend makes us a little worn and torn but that’s what makes friendships real.

In the Bible we have many great examples of friendship. The book of Ruth gives us perhaps one of the greatest examples of loyalty in all of literature. (See Ruth 1:16-17.) One of the greatest examples of friendship is found between Jonathan and David. (See I Samuel 20.) You would be enriched by the retelling of it in the great book Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible for children.

One of the most powerful stories in the Gospels involves a paralyzed man and the friends who carried him to Jesus on a mat. To get their sick friend to Jesus and through the crowd of people, they went to the roof of the house and chopped a hole in the roof and lowered their friend down on ropes into the presence of Jesus. It took time, energy, and work to get their friend to Jesus. To have great friends requires that we make friendship a high priority. You can’t carry somebody’s mat in a hurry and everyone comes with a mat. All people have brokenness and imperfections. (See Mark 2:1-12.) Friends are willing to not only go to the mat for each other but to carry the mat.

As valuable as friends are, we are all human. Friends may disappoint or desert us, but “there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24). His name is Jesus. He will never leave us nor forsake us. Abraham was called “a friend of God” (James 2:23). David longed for intimacy with God (Psalm 63). The amazing thing is that God desires our friendship. David teaches us how to grow in friendship with God in Psalm 34.

It’s been said that one doesn’t really know who his friends are until the bottom drops out in your life. You then discover that some of the people you thought you could rely on were only “fair-weather” friends. Without adversity we would not know who our true friends are. In like manner we would never know the faithfulness and friendship of Jesus without trials and tests. It’s in life’s pains that we can experience God’s goodness. (See Psalm 34:8.) We learn we can TRUST IN GOD. Instead of magnifying our problems, we learn to magnify the problem solver. (See Psalm 34:3-4.)

God wants us to share in a personal, intimate relationship with Him. I have read and heard stories about my great, great grandparents, but I’ve never met them personally. I have great admiration for them but no intimacy or fellowship with them. God has no grandchildren, only children. “For as many as received Him, gave He power to become son’s of God, even as many as believed on His name” (John 1:12). Through the death of Jesus on the cross, God has opened up the way for us to have a relationship with Him and become His friend. (See Revelation 3:20.)

Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants . . . but I have called you friends” (John 15:13-15).

Jesus laid down His life for you. Will you lay down your life for Him? You can come into blessed friendship with Jesus Christ today.

A - Admit you have sinned. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

B - Believe in Jesus. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

C - Confess and leave your sin. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)