Thursday 17th December

Today I've had this going through my head for some reason.  Its a catchy little blighter isnt it?  :D
It got me thinking about friends.  And how vital they are to our wellbeing and sanity.  Well, mine are anyway.

I don't have many friends - but the ones I have would die for me. And I for them.  I consider myself super blessed to have had some friends who go back to University days and even to high school days who have loved me and put up with me and laughed and cried with me for years.  We don't see each other often but that doesn't matter.  We know each other really really well.  My friends understand who I am and what makes me tick .  They might not agree with me on everything or share my tastes or politics or faith.  But they love me.   I know it.  And that is a gift beyond price which I don't for one minute take for granted.

There are people who don't have friends.  Lonely people.  Those who have isolated themselves from others by their behaviour and attitudes.  Those who have lost contact with their networks through divorce or family breakdown.  People whose jobs take them all over the place so that they find it difficult to put down roots.  And especially the elderly who find their friends becoming ill and dying and their own frailty reducing contact with the outside world.   Some may think they don't need friends, but God said  ' it is not good for man to be alone'.  ( Gen 2 :18)  And He is right.  It isn't.

Even Jesus needed friends.   It seems He had many of them, and perhaps three in particular with whom He was especially close.   He was friends with women and socialised with undesirables.  He didn't care much for social conventions and seemed happy to turn up and crash on his mates without warning.  I imagine that being friends with the man Jesus was a wonderful adventure and probably hugely entertaining.  He was funny.  He was hugely kind.  People were drawn to Him because He was genuinely interested in them.   We can learn alot about how to be friends by watching Jesus.

So today as we prepare for Christmas, receive cards, wrap presents and think about those who mean a great deal to us both near and far , let us take a second to thank God for our friends.   Some have passed in and out of our lives - deeply significant to us for a season.  Others are ours for life.  They might be married to us or related to us or separated from us by lots of years or many miles.  But their presence in our lives have enriched and blessed us.

Lord Jesus,   today I want to thank you for those special people You have brought into my life as my friends.  I love them and am so grateful that they love me.  I ask you to pour Your blessings into them this Christmas time.  Meet their needs, answer their prayers and fill them with joy and hope for the future.   I pray that my friendship with You will strengthen and deepen to the point where You can trust me with Your deepest secrets.  I want to know You so much better than I do and love You so much more.   I pray for all those people who have no friends this Christmas.  Those who will have no cards on the mantlepiece  and nobody to talk to on Christmas day.   May Your church reach out to the lonely and sad. Help us to see people as You see them and to love them as You love them.  Because we are your hands and heart on earth until You return.