A friend for a lifetime

All of us love to have friends in our lives. True friendship is one of the greatest bonds anyone can ever wish for; it is a relationship of devoted loyalty between two individuals. Lucky are those who have friends they can trust and rely on always. True friends feel immense love and care for each other and stand with each other against all odds. We may make many friends along the journey of life, but only few stay with us forever. These people who stand with us through thick and thin must be treasured deeply.

Those long hours of chit-chatting, attending as well as bunking classes together, chilling during lunch break, hanging out whenever school or college announces a holiday, doing group studies – the list of memories we share with our friends goes on and on. But beyond all this, true friendship is an embodiment of love, sharing and caring. It is a feeling that someone understands and appreciates us as we are, without any exaggeration, flattery or pretensions. It makes us feel ‘wanted’; it gives us a sense of being ‘someone’, and not just a faceless being in the crowd. True friendship is also generous and accommodative, and knows no boundaries or demarcations of caste, creed, color, religion or race.

While we all long for such friends, what is worth thinking of today is that we could give someone around us the gift of extending such a friendship to them. In the Bible, we see how Jesus embodies the epitome of true friendship to his disciples. In his own words, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” And he did not just say this, but became the ultimate friend by actually laying down his life, so that all of humanity could be redeemed from sin and enter into an intimate relationship with God.

Want to have someone like Jesus to be your everlasting friend? Then why not have Jesus himself, because he is waiting to be your friend and stick with you through the ups and downs, and never let go – the Truest friend.