God the Friend

In my earlier post, I mentioned that the product of understanding the relationship and role of God the Friend is as below: 

He seeks us and are found by us. We seek Him and are found by Him. We desire each other's presence as peers and friends. 

Let me explain more regarding the friend aspect, which is less discussed. Friendship is very much akin to love. In another words, there is two kind of love relationship that exists (excluding romantic love between a man and a woman) - family love and friendship love. With God the Abba Father, here we too desire His love and presence, but as a member of the family. Friendship love is different. For a family resides together within the same boundary - usually the same house, at least for an extended period of time. Therefore they do not "seek" each other, since they can find one another easily within the same boundary. (the word 'easily' refers not to the ease but rather the lack of external constraints) Does a father need to fix an appointment to see his children? No, he has the right to and anyway he WILL see his children since they live in the same house. Even after the child moves away, that understanding of the same realm/boundary called "family" does not disappear.

But friendship is different. The boundary is less clearly defined. And everyone has their own life to lead, and the overlaps between each's life is much less as compared to a family. Therefore there is a need to seek each other. A more common term for it in today's society is "friendship maintenance cost". This cost can be in terms of effort, time, money, emotional capacity, energy etc, and the truth is that not everyone is willing to pay it to everyone. That explains why sometime friendships drift apart. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing: after all, resources are limited and as our lifestations change, a lot of things change as well. An evidence of what I'm saying can be seen in the presence of 'cliques'. Cliques are another form of boundary, similar to that one of a family. We can easily substitute the word clique with other words: clan, guild, gang etc. But the effect is that in such groups, people don't really intentionally "seek" one another out. 

Regardless, I believe that for many of us today, the most comfortable place or at least one of the most comfortable places are with our friends and peers. There are of course friends that we aren't comfortable with, but that's not the point. And these comfortable friendships are not those that are formed yesterday or last week. But those that have been either developed in time, or people that can identify with you well. (this can be in terms of topics of interest, personality, burden or even where you stay). And therefore you desire the presence of these friends. Both for themselves and also their presence that brings you that security, peace, comfort etc. And so it is the same with God. We seek to know Him as a friend/peer. (peer here is used as one who identifies with us on our level - God can drop to our level just to know us and identify with us - Jesus did.) And He is found by us - we know Him and we know His presence. We love Him. And God, too, seeks us as a friend and peer - He wants us to know His heart, that we may understand Him and identify with His heavenly will, at His level (as much as possible!). And when God seeks us, we are found by Him: people who want nothing more than a friendship and relationship with Him.

The above chunk on friendship is something that God revealed to me in revelation during worship yesterday. For me, I forgot that God has always been seeking me. And that costs me much. Everyone desires to be sought. For being sought means being loved. In today's society, it is flattering to be sought not within the context of a BGR, but as a friend. As you read this, would you give this honor to God and seek Him, as a friend, who definitely deserves this honor? And also, if you haven't been seeking those people whose presence matters to you: friends you want to keep in the long-term, friends who are seeking you, friends you are keeping away from seeking you, seek them. If you are the one often being sought, I pray that you will see that just as God has always sought you, you will want to do the same and seek Him and those who are dear to you.