Greater Love Has No One Than This
Friends
“Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends.” (John 8:32).
Would it surprise you to know that the Greek word for friend, philos, means affection or love? Our most notable use of it is seen in the city, Philadelphia. Adelphos means brother, so the name means love of a brother; or, as we hear said: Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love. No wonder the word ‘friend’ touches us so warmly!
Randy Newman wrote a song for the movie, Toy Story. It’s titled: You’ve Got a Friend in Me. Here is the first stanza:
You’ve got a friend in me.
You’ve got a friend in me.
When the road looks rough ahead
And you’re miles and miles
From your nice warm bed
You just remember what your old pal said,
Boy, you’ve got a friend in me
Yeah, you’ve got a friend in me.
You gotta love the relationship between Andy and Woody, don’t you‽ Do you have a good friend; one who would do just about anything for you? I did, once, until cancer took him. One cold winter night, when I was living in Indiana, I was driving my car—a VW Rabbit diesel—west on I-70 into Illinois. It was so cold that the diesel fuel gelled, and the car would scarcely run. I managed to pull off the interstate at a rest area where I called my friend.
Steve was home with his family, comfortably snuggled together in front of the fireplace watching Mary Poppins. As soon as I called, he got up, got dressed for the cold, jumped in his truck, and drove around 40 miles one way to come rescue me. He towed me home, dropped me off, before returning to his family. It easily took three hours of his evening/night. All turned out well. After thawing out the fuel, a little fuel additive kept it from recurring.
Friends are good, especially the ones you know you can count on. Steve didn’t “lay down his life” for me that night, but the attitude of friendship sure showed up. I was fortunate to have his love. I felt like Jonathan to his David.
May you find, be blessed by, and treasure close friendship. I hope you have at least on dear friend in your life.
Sincerely,
Rod MacArthur
206.949.0325