There’s a friend who holds your heart over many years, and over many long and weary paths. The friend who freely forgives when you admit your words or actions were wrong. The friend who’s there when life gets tough and you think you’ll never get back up to face another day. The friend who shares your joy as if it were their own.  The friend whose loving heart picks right up where you both left off when distance, time, and commitments take their toll. The friend who shares your dreams and helps you reach them.  The friend who…

You know! You can finish that sentence from how your friends have endeared themselves to your heart! For there’s nothing better than the love of a true friend. You both encourage to help the other achieve their best. But there’s another friend who always walks beside us, eager to welcome the wanderer with arms open wide, ready to share the depth of His love with us… our Lord. And, in a way that is most meaningful to each of us, He longs to share that love… in the beauty of the world on display all around us, in the joy of unexpected treasures, in life’s simple but profound moments, in “coincidences” that astound our finite minds… in other words, in unique and special moments of every-day life.

Still, there’s another kind of friend who readily gives his life for ours.  As we read in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  Could, or would, we do that for one of our friends?  Many have done so in war, in the ultimate sacrifice of their life to protect and save others.  But ordinarily, we wouldn’t think of taking such a step. 

Yet, “God demonstrated his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”  (Romans 3:23)  It’s only through Jesus, that precious little baby whose birth we celebrate at Christmas, who grew to manhood with a rich ministry, and who lay down His life to die for each of us, and who arose that we might gain eternal salvation: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  That, indeed, is quite the friend!

And I, for one, can’t help but think that I don’t deserve such profound love. Yet, even in that thought is the wonder of just how precious His love truly is... knowing He loved me first and drew me to Himself despite who I am or what I might have ever done. For me He came to earth.  For my life He lived. For my soul He died… and not just for me, but for each one of us. And with our acceptance of His gracious gift of salvation, we long to bring glory and honor and praise back to Him in all that we do…

In accepting His most gracious gift, we can spend eternity with Him in His glorious heavenly home. For that, we will humbly bow our head and thank Him, and give Him all our praise and worship… for He’s the closest of friends, the one and only…  

You’re The Friend

Linda A. Roorda 

My Lord, You’re the friend I don’t deserve

Who’s cared enough to die for my soul

Whose love envelopes my heart with peace

Whose joyful song lifts my load of cares.

~

You’re the friend I choose when others desert

When the path is long with no end in sight

When the trials come and the way grows drear

You hold my heart in nail-scarred hands.

~

You’re the friend who stays and never abandons

Who whispers wisdom to gently strengthen

Whose loving words guide wandering feet

Who draws me away from sin and its harm.

~

You’re the friend who calls and tenderly seeks

Who opens my eyes to wisdom’s beauty

That my heart would yearn, Your knowledge to gain

As truth I pursue with heart, soul and mind.

~

You’re the friend who holds faith’s mercy and grace

For nothing I do can ever repay

Salvation’s gift as exposed I stand

And all is revealed in depths of my soul.

~

You’re the friend whose love softly covers

As humbly I come with contrition deep

Trusting your grip, I reach for your hands

Hands that were pierced to carry my soul.

~

For you’re the friend who will never leave

You’re the friend who seeks the depths of my soul

You’re the friend in whom faith finds sweet mercy

For you’re the friend whose praises I sing.

~~

Linda Roorda writes from her home in Spencer.