The One You Can Always Count On

Are you a person who has lots of friends or only a few friends? And by that I do not simply mean the people you share space with – neighbors, co-workers, classmates, etc., or the “friends or followers” you’ve accumulated on social media. Instead, I am asking whether or not you have people you have grown to love and respect, people you have real intimacy with.

My wife and I have a group of college friends with whom we’ve shared life with for almost five decades. We’ve been there for each other through the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows, the twists and turns. Our friendships even survived years of camping trips in ninety-degree heat and torrential downpours. Our kids grew up together, and to this day, many of them still call me Uncle Fly. (Why Fly, you ask? That’s a story for a different day.) We don’t get together quite as often as we once did, but when we do, we simply pick up where we left off. It is a beautiful thing!

This group, they are true and special friends, people I would fight for and who can count on me to “always” be there for them. But if truth be told, I am sure that I’ve disappointed them more than once, in more ways than I would like to admit. That’s just the reality of my sinful nature. Before you judge me too harshly, remember you too have that same sinful nature (Isaiah 53:6, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:23).   

We are not meant to walk through life all alone. We are made by God to be relational people. That was God’s plan from the beginning. After forming Adam from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7), we read this in v.18 – “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’” And from the rib of Adam, God made Eve – “And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man” (v.22).

It is interesting to note that two similar but different root words are used: in v.7 God “formed” man (Hebrew: yatsar – to form as a potter, take an existing substance and mold it into shape) while in v.22, the text tells us He “made” the woman (Hebrew: banah – to build, a sense of adding what was not there before). Notice there is not a hint of the woman being inferior or limited in capacity!

I cherish the fact that other people call me their friend. As sweet as that is, Jesus also calls me His friend. That’s right, the Son of God, the One who sits at the right hand of the Father, calls me friend. After the Last Supper with His disciples, in what is called the Farewell Discourse (John chapters 15-17), Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure from them. In Chp.15, Jesus positions Himself as the source of life for the world and builds the model for real and true relationship, first with Him, and then secondly, with one another. He goes on to say that the marker, that which differentiates His followers from the world, is love, being modeled in and through real relationships, again, first with God, and then with others.

It is in that context that Jesus calls those who are committed to Him, friend, yes, His friend! In John 15:14-15 we see these words – “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

So, today, as you look over your own life and count up your friends, do you consider Jesus to be your friend? He is the one friend who will never let you down, never turn His back on you, never put own His interests before yours. He is your one True Friend, the One you can always count on, no matter what!

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