I love Valentine's Day! You should see my nails right now… just a real valentine's girl over here. Not because I have a valentine or because of the romance-of-it-all — I think if I did have a valentine of the romantic sort, I might actually like this day less, because who needs that pressure? I'm in on Valentine's Day for the pink-and-red-and-candy-of-it-all and the silly and fun excuse to celebrate the people you love and tell them why you love them. I wish it was still appropriate to set a homemade mail box outside our office doors and have all our friends come by to drop off a treat and a kind or punny note to simply say, “I'm glad that you're my friend.” Thankfully, it turns out that having women's Bible Study on Valentine's Day is basically the same thing (as evidenced in the picture above).
God's given a million good things in this life, chief among them being the love he has poured out to us through Christ. We can and should celebrate that love today and everyday, and absolutely praise Christ as Savior. But we often forget another name the Bible gives Jesus — Christ as friend.
Can we think about that for a second? Is there anything better in life than a good friend? I know romantic love gets all the hype today, and familial love is a close second, but we need more words and attention for the love of a friend.
A friend so consistent, and kind, and with you in day to day to day. A friend that knows what you are going to say before opening your mouth. A friend who you can say everything and nothing to, all in the same stream of consciousness. A friend who shares your history, from the milestone to mundane moments. Honestly, to have more than one friend like that is a grace, to have a multitude is an embarrassment of riches.
It's more than enough that Christ has offered himself to us as Savior — but that he also longs to know us with the same intimacy, intentionality, and nearness as a friend? What a comfort.
There is this moment in John 15, when Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples and he tells them about their identity as his friends. Every time I read it, I can fill this swell in my chest.
So whether you love today or hate today or it's just another Tuesday, if nothing else, may it be a reminder the God of the universe calls you his friend and he proved it to the measure of laying down his life for yours.
What a friend, what a love, we have in Christ.
