closer than a brother.

Have you ever been lonely? Such a deep ache, isn't it? No matter how extroverted we are, we cannot escape loneliness. And no matter how introverted we are, we crave intimacy. The presence of people in our lives is not intimacy though - is it...?... We long to be known, but even more than that to be found. And not by many people either. No, it doesn't take many to satisfy the longing for intimacy - just one heart - deeply connected to ours.

Proverbs18:24 is a verse that has made me feel rather uncomfortable in my pursuit of intimacy .. It simply reads, "There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

Every time I read this verse, the discussion going on in my heart is the same. It goes a little like this:

One: I love my brothers. They are my flesh and blood, and no matter what has ever come between us - distance or confrontation - we are family. They have embraced me throughout my entire life, and have never rejected me despite my shortcomings. Flesh and blood - what is thicker?

Two: This is God's Word, so it must be true, but I cannot imagine why God would write so boldly that there is friend who is closer to me than my own flesh and blood. Maybe this is written for those times of family - shall we say...???... turmoil ??? Maybe.

Three: I love my friends. How could there be any one of them that is closer to me than my flesh and blood? Is this is what I am supposed to realize in my friendships? That those of us who are one minded with me through our faith in Christ are closer to me than flesh and blood? Is that it? Possibly?
But my brothers are one minded with me in faith. So maybe this isn't a verse for me at all.

If it's not a verse for me, cause I know I can get a little self oriented in God's Word - than considering this verse for anyone - How could this be just one friend throughout our entire life? The word in Proverbs is definitely singular - and I always consider the facts quite critically. "There is a FRIEND"...ONE. How could anyone ever pick which friend in their lifetime has been - or is now - closer than flesh and blood? That seems rather sad for the bond of family - and dividing for the bond among several friendships. Or maybe this is like an "in the moment" kind of thing? Like moment by moment a friend in need is a friend in deed. Sounds stupid.

At 40 years of living, I always chalk up my dissatisfaction to a lack of understanding. Somethings about The Bible -about life - I will never be able to fully grasp - despite my efforts - unless...of course... God is willing to teach me. So - up until yesterday, I have walked away from this passage resolute that this passage and I would never see heart to heart.


Yesterday morning these eternal Words of God and I met up once again - and this time my Teacher opened the flood gates for our conversation. So I read, "There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." Here we go again. I asked, how can this be? Do I really have a friend that is closer to me than my own flesh and blood?

A question is a powerful tool in the learning process. A question - although unsatisfying in itself - is the hope of something more.

God who is this friend?

I stopped and waited in the quiet, instead of rambling on about my issues of flesh and blood and my beloved friends. And since I had been studying John 15 just the day before, God brought it to my mind for this tender moment between He and I. "If you abide in me and if my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish."

I am asking.

Lord, who is this friend? In bold reply John 15 poured out like water from a dam - gushing all over me at my kitchen table so quickly I could scarcely breathe.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you...Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you..." John 15:9,13-14,16
Absolutely, I cried! This is God's Word, and He's speaking to MY heart from it simply because I am sitting there with Him wanting it!

How beautifully God speaks the truth of His Word that it should flow from Himself, Old to New Testament - with such precision and fluidity - and yet stop for but a moment - to capture and fill a human heart! This is the intimacy I was created to know.

Indeed,now I realize, there is no greater bond of friendship than that of blood. How did I miss it? This is Jesus. His blood is our bond of life, and by Him - we have always been found.

Such love. Such love. Such LOVE!