by Barbara Lane Geistfeld, D.V.M.
David writes in Psalm 25:14, “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.” In the 1983 edition of the NIV Thompson Chain Reference Bible, the marginal notation reads “Divine Friendship.” Divine friendship! Have you ever stopped to consider that God, the Creator of the universe, of everything seen and unseen, wants to be your intimate friend? He wants to confide in you and me. He wants to lean over and whisper divine secrets in our ears.
God’s desire for this divine friendship, this call to intimacy with Him, reveals an absolute truth: All human lives are special. All humans are intentionally created by God to be in this intimate relationship with Him. Psalm 139:13-14a tells us, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made ….” Every child conceived on this planet is known to God and precious to Him.
But wait. There is the problem of sin. Sin separates us from our best friend because God confides in “those who fear Him.” So, in His divine mercy and grace, He makes a new covenant known to us … The covenant, sealed with the blood of His Son Jesus, binds us together as one Body. Jesus’ sacrifice makes believers holy. In our Baptism, we receive the gift of salvation and the intimacy God so desires. Scripture tells us that God desires all people to become His children in this new covenant. This means all persons are precious to Him.
Jesus’s most incredible gift to us through His death, burial, and resurrection is eternal life. In John 11:25-26, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” And again, in John 14:2-3, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
Jesus also desires an intimate relationship with us—the same intimate relationship He has with His Father in heaven. He wants this closeness and friendship to be built on trust, the trust that will allow Him to confide in us. In John 15:14-15, Jesus tells His disciples, “You are my friends if you do what I command. 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.” Everything! Jesus holds nothing back in His relationship with us, His friends. He desires to bless us with more than we can ever imagine. He wants to whisper His divine secrets in our ears and have them dwell deep in our hearts. He wants to confide in us.
Let us praise God for His Divine Friendship given to us in His Son. Let us work tirelessly to bring the good news of this Divine Friendship to those around us. Let us never stop sharing the word that God values all human life and wants every one of His planned children to become an intimate friend. God’s gift of Divine Friendship in His Son Jesus will never end. He is indeed our ultimate Best Friend Forever.
Barbara Lane Geistfeld, D.V.M, is assistant director of volunteer relations at Lutherans For Life.