Expression of God's Love
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
“Friend, there will never be a friend as dear to me as you. There will never be another closer than a brother. Friend always worth the wait. Faithful as the day. You say we are friends. You know all about me, the good and the bad. You know when I rise and fall. You see my beginnings. Standing at the end, and yet you remain faithful to say I’m your friend.” Israel Houghton
In a lifetime, we are blessed to have one or two extremely good friends through the seasons we grow through. Notice I said “grow through”. Real friends allow you the leeway to grow in life and will assist in that growth process. Not only that, real friends will lay down their life by putting in the time, energy, and effort to ensure your success in that growth process. As you read this, you are probably having flashbacks at the same time. You are seeing faces of distinctive friends from the differing seasons of your life. Some of those friends have since moved in on in life, and you rarely even speak to them. Many are just acquaintances through social media sites. You wonder how could you be so close to someone in one stage in life, but the next stage you are distant acquaintances. The truth is God was showing you how much he loved you by providing one of His greatest blessings which is a person in friendship. Friends are assigned to seasons. It does not negate their friendship because you no longer converse or interact with them in the same magnitude. That level of friendship that you once had is no longer needed for the season you are currently stationed.
I remember the first time I heard the lyrics from the aforementioned Israel Houghton song. It was during the time of a growth process in my own personal life. In that growth process, I can right now see the one individual friend that helped me grow through that turbulent time. Listening to the lyrics again recently made me realize the faithfulness of God. It is the same song, but in this season of my life there is a different friend helping me navigate through growth. Society teaches us to fixate on the people or those situations that have done us wrong, violated, or abused us. With the right perspective in life, we can also trace the expression of God’s love to us through true friendship. Even when we fall, have good moments, have bad moments, God still remains faithful to call us His friend. God expresses that friendship to us through a relative, stranger from a high school camp, a church member, college roommate, significant other, spouse, the girl you met in third grade English class, or the guy you met at the checkout in Walmart. They are all angels that God has placed in your path to express to you how much he loves you. While God calls them His angels. You and I had and/or have the privilege of calling them friends.
As we reflect back on Resurrection Sunday, the expression of God’s love was culminated by giving his only begotten Son, Jesus. He invested His son in us that the return investment would be that one day we would be available to allow God to express his love through us by allowing someone to call us their friend.