I went home to see family this weekend for the 4th of July. But I was also able to see some old friends too - which was nice. Well, it was more than nice. Seeing old friends that I went to elementary, middle and high school with is rewarding. To reconnect with people that you haven't seen in years and have the ability to just pick up where you left off is something very rare outside of your family. This only works with the people you spent your formative years with. Old college buddies seem to have only a limited connection. And people from your previous employment - if that was your only connection - seem to drift apart too easily for us to reestablish a meaningful friendship.
Not so with our friends from 8th grade. These pals know more about us than some of our current friends. And the stuff we went through with them - like puberty, peer pressure and our first dates - those are experiences that produce bonds stronger than any super glue.
All of this reminded me of a line from a movie about this kind of friendship, "Stand by Me." After the narrator has taken us through a two hour retelling of a powerful journey he shared with three of his 12 year old friends, he concludes his story and the movie with this quote: "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. But who does?"
That about sums it up for me. But this line of thought led to the spiritual reflection concerning our friendship with God. For the spiritual giants of scripture, friendship with God was very real. Abraham is recognized in scripture as "a friend of God." And David was "a man after God's own heart." Then there's Jesus' famous line, "Greater love has no man than this - that a man lay down his life for his friend."
This amazing friendship is not lost in the words of scripture. It can be found in real life today. And interestingly enough, we can discover it by applying our 12 year old habits. Start telling God everything. Just like we shared our biggest dreams and deepest secrets with our friends at school, God wants to hear them from us. If you want examples, check out David's Psalms. To keep these conversations going, we need time with God. The kind of time we spent with our friends hanging out every chance we had after school. We all have interesting stories to tell from when we were 12, and just think about the stories we could share if we hung out with God in prayer and scripture for a fraction of the time we spent with our buddies in school. Boy would we have some good ones.
Friendship is a universal need, and yet so many people are living without it. There are people we come into contact every day who would love to have just one friend right now like the one they had at Summer camp when they were 12. But it doesn't take a class reunion to have a friend like that again. It just takes a willingness to open up to God and spend some time getting to know the One who desperately wants to be your friend.
