Early this morning, I found myself awake.  No light was needed as I walked through the house because God’s light of the moon shone through the living room windows brightly.  As I made my way to the kitchen, I picked up my phone (you know the habit; maybe you too grab your phone first thing each morning, even when the morning comes when the sky remains dark).  After unlocking my screen, I noticed a message, one that arrived at 2225 (10:25) last night, arriving after I had gone to bed.  So, this morning, I read the message that was a conclusion to a conversation that I shared with a friend.

• Have we ever considered “how” God provides friendships to us?
• Have we ever considered “why” God provides friendships to us?

The friend who messaged me late last night was responding to a question I had sent her earlier in the day when I had first left home for the journey to campus, to teach.  My question was simple:  Would you attend church with me this Sunday—Easter Sunday?

You see, this friend has been gifted to me by God’s love for humanity, and even though we are different in so many ways, still we are alike in many.  She loves students; so do I.  She teaches English; so do I.  She loves how literature teaches us truths that are applicable to life; so do I.

Then there are a few differences, ways we are different.  She has a gift for working with animals, almost as a “whisperer”; I pet them and move on to the next thing.  She wears cowboy boots; my closet remains void of this foot attire.  She has not yet accepted Jesus as her Savior; I gave my heart to Jesus when I was fifteen.

Friendships are a gift from God.  In her message last night (the words I read when I awoke), she wrote—‘You are the only true friend I have . . . You will always hold a special place in my life . . . everyone else is just an acquaintance.”  Immediately, my heart was filled with emotion for the one who sent me these words.

Jesus, before he was betrayed, demonstrated how God made us for relationships.

We are reminded over and over in the Scriptures how our life is so much richer when we share life with others.  It is there—in that thought—where I find my mind settling today.

• Why is Jesus a friend to us—the sinners?
• Why did God love us—the sinners—so much that He gave His only Son?
• Why did Jesus take with Him three of His closest friends to the garden, on the night He knew He would face the crucifixion upon the cross?

SEE WITH ME THE WORD of GOD.

At this point, normally I find my thoughts focused upon the three disciples and what they do next—SLEEP rather than keeping watch as instructed.  Yet today, God led me in a different direction of thought.  Jesus was facing a suffering unlike anything ever faced by another, and Jesus would face this suffering on the cross of Calvary!  Jesus would lay down His life for the sins of mankind, and He knew that His time of suffering was upon Him.  Three times He went “a little beyond them and fell to the ground and began to pray . . .”, and three times He returned to find His three friends tired, sleeping (verse 35).  Even though the Son of God knew His betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion was soon to come, Jesus demonstrated a powerful lesson for us to see.

• Jesus taught us how we can experience a richer life, one filled with God and one filled with others.  Jesus taught us how we can cry with our close friends when they cry; find joy when they rejoice over good news; and mourn with them when their loss is too much to bear alone.
• Jesus taught us this TRUTH so we would always surround ourselves with those who do not yet know Him as Savior.
• Jesus taught us this TRUTH so we could share His Good News with them—our friends who are lost, who have not yet given their heart to God.
• Jesus taught us this TRUTH so that we could ALSO learn the teaching of walking through life with—our friends who also walk with us in faith.
• Jesus taught us this TRUTH so that we would remember—God did not intend for us to be faithful all by ourselves.
• Jesus taught us this TRUTH so that we would remember that we belong to the “family of God,” a family filled with adopted brothers and sisters in Christ.
• Jesus taught us this TRUTH on the night of His crucifixion.
• Jesus taught us this TRUTH on the night when three of His closest friends slept.
• Jesus taught us this TRUTH on the night when He knew He would give His life so we—through HIM—might come to know God & receive eternal life—through Jesus!

• Do you trust God?
• Do you trust that God could love you so much that He would give His only child, so that you might not perish?
• Have you trusted God with your life?
• Do you trust the pure sacrifice God provided through Jesus to atone for the sins of God’s creation—Us?
• Have you trusted in truth that there is but only one way to know God & that is through Jesus?
• Today is Good Friday, the day we remember what Jesus did upon the cross of Calvary.
• Jesus knew why He was here.
• Jesus knew how He would die.
• Jesus knew when He would die.
• Today is a really good day to TRUST GOD AT HIS WORD!
• Today is a really good day to TRUST in the ATONING, SHED BLOOD of JESUS CHRIST, the REDEEMER!
• Have you trusted Jesus as your Savior?