you got a friend

Jesus had it right.

(I mean, of course he did, but sometimes one more little aspect of the way he lived hits home with freshness and with power).

Although he was their teacher, they were not his pupils but his friends. That's how he viewed them. That was the relationship he sought. You are my friends.

He enjoyed being with them and was glad of their presence, support and their sharing in his work. They did the kingdom thing together. On the level with one another. As friends.

He had it right (as I said at the start!).

It's good to be surrounded by your friends. That's what I'm trying to say, I guess. Folk here have been great today. We simply pull together here and root for one another.

They're my friends. And it's great being on the receiving end of all of that. Understanding, concerned, helpful, supportive and kind. Setting me free to be up at the hospital more and there with my Mum for some time.

Of course, it's been a lovely sort of providence of God as well that my sister's been up from Wales this week: she was there at the hospital today from about midday - right on through to the sort of 'closing time' at night (about 10pm).

My Mum will have been so grateful for that. The presence at her side of one she knows - providing a sort of anchor of familiarity amidst the churning seas of so much that is uncertain and unclear.

Though I walk through the valley of deep darkness I will not be afraid, for you are with me. I know he said that "you are my friends", but more important still is simply this - he is our friend. There for us always in our time of need.

I think my sister's presence in the ward is a sort of sacrament of God's own constant friendship, love and care. Embodying the presence of our risen Lord. That sort of thing.

In some ways that's exactly what we're called to be as followers of Jesus Christ. People who simply bring his presence and his friendship into every place we go. People who embody him. Jesus, in flesh and blood today.

In a sense, I suppose, that's all I ever seek to do and be.

That very thought had crossed my mind when in at the school today. I wasn't there long. The usual Thursday sort of thing. Over coffee. Brief. Spontaneous. Unstructured.

A chance to chat with whoever's free. A chance to simply be there. A presence. The presence of Jesus, his friendship and care.

Idle chat, the bulk of the time. Light-hearted, relaxed and mostly fairly fleeting. A word with the teachers, the briefest encounter with Douglas the janitor there, a simple touching base with the two hard-working secretaries on entry and departure (I have to sign in and out each time I'm there!).

Friendship again. Often expressed in the little things.

I had to laugh in the late afternoon when I was up at the hospital seeing my Mum. I was chatting away to the lady in the adjoining bed and in the course of all the chat she asked what I did, and was I a school teacher! I said, Yes, I do that sometimes, too!

Half-kidding, of course!

(I asked her why she thought I was a school teacher and she it was because I sounded intelligent! And, here, I thought she was in hospital for a gall bladder problem!).

But it did cross my mind that there simply isn't any one thing that I do. And most of what I do is really bound up with mainly being a friend. That's what I do when I teach in the school. Jesus was their teacher, but the pupils were his friends.

That's what I do whatever I'm at. Because that's what Jesus did. And does.

I had a great long chat today with a guy, now up in years, who's doing just that as well. Using all his expertise and strength to help address the poverty so many face in a country far from here. Practical help. Putting people on their feet.

Being their friend. It was challenging hearing his story. Exciting, too. And who knows how that story may continue in the days to come - and how it might involve us here as well.