Three things of great importance

"Putting this all together, what I would tell the girls is only one sentence. 'Your friends will come and go, you family should always love you, BUT - it is God who will NEVER desert you.'"

I was reminded the other day of three things I would tell my girls when they were growing up. I felt them to be of great importance. Why? Because we are all of us, relational beings. We strive for relationships. Not any relationships - relationships which count. Relationships which have value to them. So today, as we approach Christmas, I thought I might expound on those three things.

• Friends  - "Your friends will come and go". Or, as one of my friends has put it, "People come into your life, people go out of your life." True words. Once in a while, some of the people who come into your life become your friend(s). And my wife and I believe those meetings are not accidental. People are put in our lives, at a certain time, for a certain reason. And what reason is that? Usually unknown. But definitely known to God. Some friends will shine brightly in your life for a while, and then disappear due to time, distance, or just change. Others might stay in your life for expended periods of time, and become your "Besties". Or in my case, some of my friends are re-connections from times long ago. Those are very special to me, as special as the new friends I have made. In any event, in my 70 years, I have many friends come and go. But the ones I have now, are more valuable to me than gold.

• Family - This one might hurt a bit for some. "Your family should always love you". One of our former pastors (believe this or not) had a brother who is also a pastor. Their relationship over the years, has been hurtful and regretful. Two pastors! But our former pastor has said more than once, "there is no hurt like family hurt." Amen to that pastor! In some cases, I have seen more damage done to an individual by family members, including their closest family members (parents). The people we love the most, who we are the closest to since birth, can inflict the most damage on us. Now, fortunately, this is NOT the norm. The norm is that your family will always love you. This is where you can receive the greatest nurturing. But when that love, that nurturing turns sour, or worse yet, turns love turns to antipathy or apathy, that is where real damage can occur. That is why I say "your family SHOULD love you" - they really should. For a multitude of reasons.

• God - Now I come to the real hope of this article. "It is God, who will never desert you". Some people who are the most lost, have said something similar about their current state. "I have done things. Bad things. Things so bad, God could never forgive me." Here is where the golden ray of sunshine comes in. It is hard to understand for us humans, as we think like humans. We think conditionally. But God does not. There is NOTHING so good we can do in our lives, that will cause God to love us more. And - there is NOTHING so bad we have done, which will cause God to love us less. Yes, even at our worse, our most "rotten", God still loves us with a fierce love which is hard for us to comprehend. It is unconditional love - Agape Love. A love which we can only accept and not try to understand. For when we stray, it is us who wanders from God - never God who wanders from us. And His love remains steadfast. Amen to that!

Putting this all together, what I would tell the girls is only one sentence. "Your friends will come and go, you family should always love you, BUT - it is God who will NEVER desert you." When things are the darkest in your life, when it looks like there is nowhere to go but down, remember that it is God who will NEVER desert you. When you feel unloved, that is when you should know you are loved with the fiercest love ever. The love of God Almighty.