COMFORT OF FRIENDSHIP
A devotional sharing the thoughts about ways of seeking comfort during stressful times and how we can find comfort in our friends both old and new.
SCRIPTURE:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
—2 Corinthians 1:3-7—
THOUGHT:
Comfort. What is it? Macaroni and Cheese, piping hot and baked in the oven? Mmmm………..Or……a very cold day, with a soft, fuzzy blanket wrapped around you as you binge watch Netflix? Or…….(more likely in Houston)…looking out the window on a boiling hot day, with an ice-cold lemonade in your hand and an a/c unit that works perfectly while listening to “Chicago” (OK, I am a 70s gal – …Color My World, right?). Or…..hearing a stormy rainy day outside and when you get up to go to the bathroom, you realize it is Saturday and you crawl quickly back into bed to snooze away. Are your senses ready by now? That’s one way to describe the feeling called “comfort”.
As Christians, we can go to our God, to find the comfort that we long for in this life. Of course, not necessarily for mac/cheese or a warm blanket or an ice cold drink but for those times when we need comforting, when we long for comforting. The feelings of “comfort” we receive from earthly things are fleeting. Yet, the comfort that we long for is from God, our Father. Abba.
For the earthly comforts, we can make the lemonade or mac/cheese or buy the blanket or turn on the record player (OK, we already talked about the 70s, right?). Yet, to obtain the comfort we need from our spiritual Father, we need to find another way.
There are many ways to attain this kind of comfort – through meditation, through prayer, through worship, etc. Our God is bountiful and has given us many avenues in order to be able to reach out to Him in whatever way helps us best. Today, though, I would propose that one way is through friends. Especially in this time of the pandemic, we long to be with our friends again. Our God has not only given us a way of comfort through prayer and other modes as mentioned, but also through the precious gifts of friends.
During this time of isolation, I have had the experience of getting to know friends all over again and even making some new ones. There are the friends of long ago, that we are taking the time in our supposedly busy lives to call or write or email to and to divulge our sorrow for losing touch. There are the friends who are new because we are reaching out in ways that we did not before. For example, people we meet at a food bank, volunteering because we now have a little time. Or maybe those who help us with groceries through “pick up” and remember our faces with a pleasant acknowledgement that reminds us that we are all in this together. Maybe work friends that we get closer to as we talk on the phone with more time now since we don’t get called back to our job responsibilities. Friends who have been our neighbors for a long time but we never saw because everyone is so busy working. The list goes on and on. Some of these I have experienced and some that I have not, but the point is that God gives us two gifts: the gift of friends to bring us comfort and new ways to create these friendships as we struggle with our challenging time.
Is there any greater comfort than hearing a friends’ voice? How about when you are feeling discouraged and while talking to a friend you find yourself smiling or even maybe laughing? How about a friend that says, “Oh, I am so glad you called, I was just thinking about you!”? With friends that God brings into our lives, we feel love and kindness and comfort. We hear their kind words and their supportive spirit and long to continue to hear the music of their voice. We feel the blanket being pulled over our shivering spirit. We can almost taste our words changing from the coldness of depression or fear into warm and soothing renewed confidence.
Yes, God, in the Trinity, is our Father, our Brother, our Abba, our…….Friend. The form that God takes as a Friend is in the form of all our earthly friends because God knows that we need the physical, human touch of friends. He knows that friendship fulfills all of our needs in our senses. He knows we need the comfort of friends.
PRAYER:
Dearest God in many forms. We thank you for your Love. We also thank you that because You love us, you send us opportunities to have friends we can see and hear and touch here on earth. Thank you for recognizing our needs and we know that is because you are omniscient. You know exactly what we crave and what we need. We love you……….Friend.
AMEN.
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