28 January 2008 Devotion for Today “A Friend Like Jesus” John 15:14-15

Last Thursday I went visiting with a church member to someone in our neighborhood. When we pulled into the driveway we noticed a little dog in the front yard of the one we were visiting. I thought at the moment, “this family has gotten a new dog since I was here last.” When we knocked at the door, the dog approached us, but as soon as I reached out to the little dog to pet it and say kind things to it, the dog backed away. His little eyes seemed to long for love and affection, but seemed frightened at my advance. The woman whose home we visited commented on the same fact, and that she surmised the poor dog must have been abused because he was too frightened to trust anyone. After a time, the dog trotted off to someone else’s yard.

The memory of that little dog crept back into my mind this morning. There are many of us like that little dog- craving love, crying out for affection, even reaching out for friendship. Yet as soon as we see others reaching out to us, we become distrustful of their intentions, and back away, or push them away- leaving us even lonelier than ever. Our memories from hurts from the past, perhaps like the abuses heaped upon that little dog, keep us from the love and friendship we might have received. The pattern continues and we go through life sad and empty.

It’s sadder still to see that this generation is perhaps one of the most disconnected generations there has ever been. We might be connected to the internet. But we do not have to place ourselves in a position of trust when we talk to our on-line friends. In our minds they are like the make-believe friends we had as children. When we no longer wish for them to be around, or if our interests change, we can easily dispose of them with no emotional attachment. But at the same time, we seem more un-wired from personal relationships than ever before.

Christ comes to us with an offer of friendship that we can trust like no other. Who else has made the offer of not only sacrificial love, but unconditional love as he tells us, “Greater love has no one 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 your servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15:14-15)

Friends like these are rare, but less so when you become the kind of friend Christ desires you to be. He will never hurt you, and as your friend, Christ will help you overcome your fear of others. In a world that desperately needs friends, you will never lack for companionship when you learn to trust Christ and become a friend to others.

Have a blessed day!