Recently, two friends and I were eating lunch at Cracker Barrel. We had managed to avoid—for the moment, at least—the temptation to spend all our money in the general store part of the establishment, and we had been seated at a nice table by the window.
As we chatted, our conversation turned to relationships and how important they are to us as women. One of my friends, Linda, said she is good friends with her next door neighbor. She and her neighbor each like to go out into her own backyard, meet at the fence separating their properties, and chat about everything and nothing. “We’re ‘fence friends,’” Linda said.
“What a great title for a devotional!” I said. “I’m going to write one called ‘Fence Friends’ one day.”
So here it is, for Linda and for all of us.
Linda’s words stuck in my mind not just because of the great title, but because it sounded really neat to have a next-door neighbor you can meet up with like that and chat with about whatever strikes you.
Some of us may have ‘fence friends’ too. Others of us have friends like that, only they don’t live next door. Still others of us may be in a temporary situation where we don’t have a friend like that right now.
But whether or not we have a human ‘fence friend,’ if we know Jesus, we have a Friend who is far closer than our backyard fence. In fact, He lives in our hearts.
We don’t have to go to the back fence to meet Him. We can meet Him anywhere, anytime, because He’s closer than our next breath. That’s one of the greatest things about knowing Jesus: We get to have a permanent Best Friend who’s always available and always willing to chat with us about everything and nothing.
Yet most of us don’t take advantage of His friendship and nearness. We’d be far more likely to go out into the backyard to meet a human friend than to spend time talking with our Best Friend.
Maybe that’s because we don’t know how to pray. Maybe it’s because we can’t quite wrap our minds around the idea of Jesus’ being our Best Friend.
Whatever the reason, we never show up at the back fence, so the relationship withers. Not because He doesn’t know how to hold up His end, but because we don’t know how—or we know how and simply don’t do it.
Precious mom, if you don’t know Jesus, but you long for a Best Friend, I’d love to introduce you to Him. Everything you’ve ever wanted in a best friend, He’s that, and far more.
If you know Jesus, but you don’t know how to pray—well, I admit I’m still figuring this one out too. But I can share with you some of the things He’s taught me, and I will. I’ll also share some of the things I’ve learned about what it’s like for Jesus to be my Best Friend.
Next week, we’ll begin a series on getting to know Jesus, and I promise you, it’ll be about far more—and far less—than merely performing certain actions. It’ll be about getting to know the Lover of our souls, and what it looks like to be best friends with Him.
I’d love to have a fence friend, but even better, I want to have Jesus. I bet you do too.
So I’ll see you next week.
John 15:15—“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”