The Church is community. We follow Christ. That means we worship with a group of people who believe as we do. It also means we are part of a larger group of believers, the Church throughout the world, comprised of people whose basic beliefs about God are the same as ours. The ways they worship don’t always match ours, but their trust is in the same Savior.
Being part of the Church means that we need to seek out companions for our Christian walk.
Men frequently form their friendships around activities. They befriend guys they play golf, basketball, or fantasy football with. Women form their friendships around conversation.
Now that most women in America have careers, we find it harder to form friendships that provide emotionally intimate companionship. We are too busy to sit on each other’s porches drinking coffee, too embarrassed by our less than picture perfect homes to invite each other in.
Men understand each other in ways women just don’t. Women understand each other in ways men just don’t. Everybody needs friends, but in our age of technology, we are connecting more, communicating less, and finding ourselves more isolated than ever.
The Bible gives us examples of strong friendships. Ruth and Naomi’s relationship survived the deaths of their husbands. Naomi tried to get Ruth to go home to her “own people” but Ruth would not have it. She would not lose her heart connection to this woman she trusted as a mentor and advisor.
Mary and Elizabeth were cousins but had a stronger connection than even blood. They were each miraculously carrying a son. Elizabeth was too old to have a child. Mary was a virgin. Surprised by their God planned pregnancies, these two women shared that precious time in each mother’s life, that time when we are waiting for our children to arrive.
Jonathan and David also had a deep and abiding friendship. I Samuel 18: 1 tells us that Jonathan’s soul was knitted to David’s. It was as if they had one heart.
I like to say I have two best friends. That statement defies the meaning of best. But we meet in each other’s homes, imperfections aside. They have been only a phone call away during some amazing times in my life. Bad times, scary times, good times, exciting times. I’m doubly blessed.
They were there when I was a newly single mother. There during the milestones of my children growing up, the lows of sibling rivalry and teenage rebellion, the highs of accomplishments, graduations, new jobs. There to celebrate the founding of new homes, the welcoming of new babies.
There when two of my sons deployed to the Middle East.
There when my father died.
And there when my husband faced heart disease.
They have also walked with me along my faith journey. They guide where I might step astray. They point the way to the great Light of the World who gives us the gifts of good friends who point us back to Him.