This past week Tracy and I were visited by friends from Texas. There was much laughter and happiness as we ate, talked, worshiped, and caught up on news about the people and the experiences that connect our lives. Friendship is a wonderful gift. It is a gift that cannot be overcome by distance or infrequency of visits. Friendship is a gift that lives deep within the recesses of one's being and seems to never wither.

Now, knowing all of those truths about friendship does not mean that friendships can go without nurture. We should always be aware of and sensitive to the need to develop and grow our friendships. The church is a wonderful place to make that kind of commitment to friendship. In the ministry of the church we are given ample opportunities to seek out new and exciting relationships. As we work in the kingdom of God we are exposed to all that is possible, all that can be right and good about we humans. We can find the freedom of living under God's Lordship and experience acceptance, forgiveness, and love while at the same time becoming vessels through which God imparts those same gifts.

There is a wonderful piece of scripture that addresses the idea of friendship, expressing all that befriending and being befriended can hold for us. We shouldn't be surprised that at the center of this scripture is the notion that God in Jesus has chosen us to become friends of God. John writes, " This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from God. You did not choose me but I chose you " ( John 15: 12, 14 - 16 ).

As this community and this church continues to grow and change we are going to be called by God through Jesus to foster, grow, and nurture new friendships. Those new friendships will not diminish our old ones, they will make them richer and deeper. Jesus demands from those who will follow him to become friends of God by loving each other as God has loved us through Jesus. It is no coincidence that our relationship with God is the model of our relationships with each other. God knows all about us and still loves us. We are commanded to be God - like. And we are given the gifts to become that kind of person.

Grace and peace