Friends Forever

Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the LORD, saying, The LORD shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’” 1 Samuel 20:42

As I’ve mentioned previously, my wife and I met as counselors at a summer camp. While there, we developed deep friendships with our fellow counselors in just a few weeks. If you’ve been, you know that camp just does that to people. Weekly, we witnessed the same phenomenon in our cabins, as our campers developed close relationships in just a few days. As each week came to a close, and it came time for our campers to say goodbye, they grew increasingly emotional. At the talent show on the final evening, it was annoyingly common for some cabin to sing Friends by Michael W. Smith. What became an anthem to those kids, became an anathema to us, simply due to its nauseating repetition. Not this song again.

The song was popular though, because it tapped into something profoundly comforting – For those who believe in God, goodbye isn’t forever. I’ve found this comforting in my own life. Being somewhat sentimental myself, I tend to get emotional when a life chapter comes to a close and I realize that things will never be the same. When I graduated from high school, college, and then medical school, I grew melancholy at the thought that I’d never again have those same relationships. I found comfort in the knowledge that though I may not, in this life, have the same connection to my friends, I would have eternity to spend with them.

This is the same comfort to which Jonathan appealed when he said goodbye to David in today’s passage. In the story, Jonathan recognized that David had to leave, as King Saul sought to kill him. Saying goodbye was sorrowful, but Jonathan recognized that they were eternally united in their faith and that temporal constraints couldn’t confine an eternal friendship. They were forever friends, and they would find each other in this life or the next.

This recognition – that relationships are eternal – has application beyond simply being a comfort at my life’s transitions. This recognition should prompt me to daily invest in that which is eternal. I spend a lot of time working on my yard, but my yard isn’t eternal. People are. In understanding this, I should be motivated to invest my time and effort into those around me, sharing with them the love that God has shared with me. People are eternal and so, if I desire to invest in that which truly matters, I must love those whom God has put in my life.