Deepening FriendshipsSample

Day 1: Not Made to Do Life Alone

We are made for fellowship. We are not made to live this life on our own. We are created to bring the image of God to bear to this world we live in. The Trinity is a fellowship, a friendship, in which Father, Son and Spirit live in stunning unity, giving one another glory, creating together, loving, and being loved within the divine Godhead. They are three in one, a mystery. And yet as complete as this union is on its own, our God reached outward and created human beings to enlarge their fellowship, to share their glory and their love, that we would, in turn, return their affection and belonging, to live within this holy fellowship and extend it outward.

Over the next seven days, we will explore this gift of intimate friendship. We begin with two contrasting stories of friendship in Scripture, and how these women experienced sisterhood and belonging, or the lack thereof, and what their stories mean to us.

Mary’s and Tamar’s Stories of Friendship and Isolation:

Mary: I think of Mary, the mother of Jesus. After she meets the angel Gabriel, who tells her that she, a virgin, is going to become a mother, the mother of the Son of God, scripture says that Mary arose in haste and immediately went to Elizabeth to tell her this news. As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s voice, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaped, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth’s words to Mary must have been nurturing to Mary’s soul: “Blessed are you for believing, for there will be a fulfillment of those things that you heard from the Lord!” This is a beautiful picture of friendship, of one coming alongside another.

Tamar: I also think of another woman, Tamar, one of King David’s daughters. She was a beautiful young woman, the daughter of a king, who was raped by her brother. In Tamar’s case, she did not find a friend to help her, hold her story, or speak on her behalf, to come to her aid and rescue. Scripture tells us that in the absence of care after this traumatic experience, Tamar ended up living as a desolate woman, friendless. Alone in a different brother’s house, shame kept her from the belonging she was created for.

What a juxtaposition! Mary experienced the love and care we were created for in relationships, and how beautiful this kind of friendship can be for each of us in this fallen world. Perhaps your experience with friendship, or lack thereof, is more like Tamar, where relationships may have caused so much pain that you are afraid to open yourself to it again for fear that you will just experience more hurt.

Over these seven days we will explore friendship, sisterhood, and belonging. We are created to be part of a redemptive community of sisters, friends, and allies- to be outposts of heaven in this broken world. We were made for this! Although we have been disappointed and betrayed in relationships, our God has come to redeem what has been broken and lost. Our thirst for belonging begins here.

As you ponder all this with God today, consider asking Him:

Father, how do you want to deepen this in me and in my community of friends?

Jesus, who is an "Elizabeth" in my life? Am I an "Elizabeth" in my community?

Spirit, who are the women in my community who need a friend that you would invite me to come alongside? Or maybe I feel like Tamar. I invite you, Spirit, into this space to speak and to move on my behalf.