A Place at the Table - 41 - Friend

A Place at the Table - 41 - Friend

Lord, Your life changed the world— there is no problem that grace doesn’t solve. Thank You that grace is enough. As we interact with You through the Scriptures and prayer, help us to become more graceful with others, to see with new eyes, to let go of things that separate us from those You love. We need this in our lives, Lord. We need to spill out grace so that we can receive the blessing of Your freedom. As we start to emerge from this journey, give us the blessing of taking another’s hand. Amen.

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Today’s devotion focused on friendship - the friendship we have with God and the friendship we are called to have with others. Seay closes the devotion with the following, “If Jesus is our ultimate friend and He calls us into loving friendship and community, and if we will be identified by our love for others, how will we carry this 40-day journey of solidarity with the poor into the rest of our lives? How will we reorient our journey, our friendships, our expectations? Will we befriend those whom Jesus would befriend? Care for those whom Jesus would care for? If so, we will experience the profound ways Jesus’s love changes the world.”

I was working on some pieces for our Holy Week services this morning and was reading through the words of this amazing hymn - O Sacred Head Now Wounded. Its one of those hymns that isn’t a warm-fuzzy. Its not an upbeat, all-is-well type of song. But instead it has a depth that acknowledges the reality of what God did for us in the person of Jesus. There is so much in this hymn, but I was drawn this morning to the beginning of the 3rd verse - What language shall I borrow, to thank thee dearest friend, for this thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end?

Dearest friend - what an incredible way to think of our relationship with God - our dearest friend? The friend who gave himself for us. How can we imitate that for others?