By Ben Girdler
I love you so much. I cant thank God enough for you. You are my support. You have changed my life. I love you beyond words. Just wanted you to know. Goodnight.
I got that text just the other day from my fiancee while she was out of town for a school internship. I love getting messages like that; I think we all do. Whether it is from a wife or fiancee or a close friend, it means the world.
I saved it in my phone so I could read it whenever I wanted to or when ever I was feeling down. I reread it just the other night and as I did it was as if I could see God looking down and smiling. He was smiling because my fiancee was happy. I was happy. We had (and still have) each other. I think that is the way God intended it to be: people loving one another. It doesn’t matter if it’s a spouse or a close friend; it’s the relationship that God loves.
God made us to want and need relationships with other people. Even Jesus needed close friends. Before he embarked on His public ministry the very first thing he did was to get a group of friends together to travel the journey with Him.
I often think what it would have been like to walk around with Jesus. Not the stuff thats recorded in the Bible but what wasnt written down. I can picture it now. Jesus and the disciples are walking from town to town and along the way, John is telling fishing stories, Peter is telling jokes, maybe James liked to play practical jokes like tying Jesus sandals together when they all slept at night. It had to be fun.
They were just like us. They were spending time with each other, as good friends everywhere do, investing in the relationships with each other. Those days of walking and building relationships are what I think led to the success of the early church. They were the closest of friends, there for each other no matter what. That is what God wants for us. He wants us to have these relationships that we can trust and rely on and enjoy. And I think God smiled down on them just as He smiled at my fiancee and me.
I know that just as God smiled when I read that text and was reminded of the love between my fiancee and I, just as God smiled on Jesus and his disciples goofing off while walking from town to town, God smiles down when ever you invest in a relationship with your friends or significant others. Its just in His nature to enjoy His children being happy, especially when they are happy together. So call a friend, go out to coffee, invest in someone you love – make God smile.
If you liked this one, check out: Bok Choy and Community
Ben lives in Tucson, AZ studying sociology and writing. He even works full time when it doesnt interfere with writing the stories God puts on his heart to share with the world.