What I learned on the golf course

This morning I had the privilege of golfing with some dear friends.  It was wonderful because we were friends even after we had finished the round!
As we were walking around the course, I could hear the birds singing in the trees, there was such high humidity that the air was still and thick, and there was just this sense of peace.  It really was quite a sense--to feel embraced by God through the relationships with friends, to see His creativity through the heavy dew on the greens.  Every now and then it's good to be able to be filled with joy through the simple things in life.

I wonder what the disciples felt when Jesus told them in John 15:15 "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."

Imagine hearing that from Jesus!  "You are my friends."  Picture yourself there when He said those words.  You were maybe sitting around the table eating lunch together--a very ordinary thing in an ordinary day.  The ordinary sun was shining down on the ordinary table and Jesus tells you that He is your friend--in some ways, a very ordinary thing to say.  I wonder if the disciples felt the full impact of what Jesus was saying--that the One who walked in heaven is now sitting among them in those ordinary surroundings telling them they're friends?  It seems too bizarre to really imagine, and yet that is exactly how God seems to operate among us--using the ordinary things of life to communicate something extraordinary.

Sometimes I think we try too hard to make God "supernatural".  What I mean is that we can sometimes fall into the trap of imagining that the things of God that really make a difference have to shock or amaze us, when so often He is trying to communicate profoundly beautiful things to us through seemingly very ordinary things:  "You are my friend" doesn't sound nearly as "God-like" as "I am the great I AM and my words twist the cedars of Lebannon and level mountains in their fury!"  And yet Jesus saying that He is our friend is just as powerful and just as amazing.

I'm so glad that Jesus is our friend.  I think He would have enjoyed that round of golf this morning--maybe one day I will have the privilege of doing that with Him.

May you be blessed today by Jesus who thinks of you as his friend.

BT