Friendship is a precious gift. Friends accept us as we are and for who we are. Friends can be honest and frank with each other. Friends spend time with us, encourage us and inspire us through their love and care. While we don’t get to choose our family, we do get to choose our friends.
In this week’s Gospel passage from John 15, Jesus continues to prepare the disciples for life without his direct presence with them. If they are to live fruitful lives, they must remain connected to Jesus. They – and we – will continue to stay connected with Jesus and dwell in his love as we embrace his commands, especially the command to love one another.
Jesus then says two amazing things. He chose us, just as he chose the first disciples, and he wants to be our friend. So just like other friends we may have, Jesus chooses to be our friend. This is a great gift and assurance. As the old hymn puts it, what a friend we have in Jesus …
How might we cultivate this friendship with Jesus that he is offering? By doing the same sorts of things that we do with our other friends. We spend time together, we enjoy each other’s company, we share stories and joys and heartaches.
We can do these same things with Jesus through prayer, if we take the leap of faith that prayer can be a conversation. It may take some time to tune our hearts and spirits to hear what Jesus is saying to us and we should always seek the counsel of others before making major decisions. But as we deepen our relationship with Jesus we will find ourselves following his ways more often and learning more about how we love one another. Before long we will be extending the friendship of Jesus to those around us.