Thursday, August 23, 2012

Gotta Have Friends

Matthew 18:20 
"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”



I will not pretend that I understand the divine nature of the Holy Spirit.  How He can be in us and around us and with everyone else all at the same time?  My finite mind was not made to comprehend that wonder, but just to be awed by it. I do know that, while I serve a magnificent God Who can do that, He has not left me completely in the dark.

Great things can be discovered on your own.  Want to hide in the woods?  Go right ahead, Mr. Emerson, find your "enlightenment" at Walden.  God even tells us to retreat to our prayer closet to find Him.  (The context of that text was a reminder not to be boastful to others, praying for the benefit of others who see you.  However, you may also find solitude free of distraction and more amiable to better focus and connection.)

But I don't think we were meant to travel our journey on this earth alone.  Ecclesiastes 4:9-11 tells us, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?"

It is a joke among my friends that I am on Facebook often.  I don't feel guilty about it anymore. I love knowing what is going on with people close to me.  I have made many friendships, improved others, and learned an awful lot from these people as well.  What does that tell me?  To quote Solomon again, nothing is new under the sun.  I have yet to come across a problem someone else has not seen.  And from others who have not seen the problems I have come sympathy and prayers.  This is God's physical provision, I think, as we work through our faith.  Making the unseen seen.  If my friends can speak loving words to me, how much more love is the Father feeling for me?

Ten years ago, when my oldest was a baby, there was no Facebook.  I lived in a neighborhood filled with other mothers at home with their babies, and I did not know a one of them.  I was lonely, and I was sad.  When my baby was 6 months old, I finally called an old friend, whose child was a few months older than mine.  She had gone through many of the same problems I did with her baby, and I could hardly believe the relief I felt in knowing that.  

We were meant to hold each other up and carry one another's burdens.  They are too heavy for one person.  And while Jesus is standing there with his light yoke, ready to switch with us, sometimes we are just too blind to see Him.  Let's be thankful for the helping hands around us, doing their part to hand us over to loving guidance of the Lord.