Saturday, February 27
I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
—John 15:15
Jesus calls us friends. I like that. I like that very much.
We are friends. Friends of Jesus. Friends of God.
I find myself thinking of God that way more and more. God has called me to be God's friend. How wonderful. I'm growing more convinced that our ultimate vocation is to be intimate, loving friends of God.
According to First John, when we are friends of God, "everyone who loves the parent loves the child." Genesis teaches us that we are all God's children. So, John continues, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments."
Loving God and loving people; it's all tied in together. Jesus summarizes God's commandments as love: the Great Commandment—Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself—and the New Commandment, "love one another."
So, we are invited to live in this relationship of love for all God's children. That's the way we love God. And beyond that, we are called friends of God.
What a thrilling way to go through life—making its fundamental aim to live in loving friendship with all. To be God's friends. To be friends to God's children, all humanity.
Open my heart to your friendship, O God, and may the love with which you have loved me be extended through my life into the world, that I may love my neighbor as myself, and be a friend to everyone I meet today. Amen.
These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2007.
