“Yet as human friends who understood this pain (barrenness) diminished, I found an understanding friend in God, the kind of friend who made me want deeper friendship. More reaching. I wanted to be a friend to God.”- Sara Hagerty
“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 heard from My Father I have made known to you.”- John 15:15 (NKJV)
In Chapter 13 (“The Hidden Way: Becoming a Friend of God”), the concluding chapter of Unseen, Sara Hagerty emphasizes God wants to be our friend. However, God wants a friendship consisting of more than sharing high-fives and occasional help. God, Sara notes, wants to share hearts, stories, and inner lives.
Therefore, the nodding expressions and encouragements of others aren’t as significant as God’s heartbeat for us. God shares that heartbeat with us when, through the Holy Spirit’s power, we turn our eyes upon Him. Thus, God sees us when no one’s looking. In response, we search Him.
Furthermore, Ms. Hagerty states, friendship with God means hearing. When we listen for God’s heart and His soft whisper in His Word, we become God’s friend.
As a result, author Jon Bloom observes in Things Not Seen, Mary’s pouring out her perfume created a windfall, not a waste:
“A poured-out life of love for Jesus that counts worldly gain as loss displays how precious he really is. It preaches to a bewildered, disdainful world that Christ is gain and the real waste is gaining the world’s perfume while losing one’s soul.”
Today’s question: What Bible verses help you find an understanding friend in God? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: the Thanksgiving Short Meditation, “An inverted sense of measurement”
