Who doesn’t remember Michael W. Smith’s most popular Christian hit? In just .29 seconds, I found approximately 2,170,000 hits on the internet when I Google-searched for it. Released in 1983 and written for a friend who was moving away, this song was sung at more graduations I attended through the 90’s, and early 2000’s, than I can recall. It was also sung at our commissioning service the night before we left for Africa in 1987. When I hear it, my eyes still water. Who hasn’t had to say good-bye to a good friend? We all relate to this in some fashion…probably why the music and lyrics gained such popularity.
“…friends are friends forever (link to song on YouTube),
if the Lord’s the Lord of them…”
There’s a big “IF” in the middle on that famous line…because friends do come and go. That’s a truth we can’t deny. I’m thankful for a lot of people with whom I have spent a season of life, but not everyone has hung around. Some moved away. Some just left…but still live close. Some friendships aren’t forever. It’s just a fact. Things change. Life circumstances put distance between us. Time and life, just make it hard to stay in touch. Friendships take work… BUT, there are some, who, when we get back together, nothing has changed, and time, as well as distance, simply disappear. These, generally, fit the “if” in that line of Friends are Friends Forever…“If” the Lord’s the Lord of them!
Between you and me stands Jesus. When Jesus comes between us, nothing separates!
Here comes the transition between the MWS song and the story of Jonathan and David. When we find the “if-the-Lord’s-the-Lord-of-them” kind of friend, it’s generally because Jesus-in-them has left us with a little bit of themselves that makes them undeniably a piece of our lives forever. Some of my “if” friends have taught me to laugh a little more at myself and not take myself too seriously. Some have taught me the value of vulnerability. Some have left me with a little more courage to take a sensible risk or two. Some have just given me a little more Jesus. That’s the piece Jonathan left with David. When David was in a tight spot in the wilderness-of-his-life, Jonathan taught him how to find his strength in God and God alone. Jonathan didn’t just go to David and encourage him. He didn’t enable David. It wasn’t as if David had to have Jonathan every time he was in a tight spot. Jonathan left David, not with just more courage to endure, but Jonathan left him knowing what to do if he was ever in a wilderness place again. How do I know?
Just seven chapters after the passage we’ve been reading the last two weeks in 1 Samuel 23:16, we find David in another desert-situation (literally and metaphorically). This one was a doozy. David had been where he shouldn’t have been…amidst the Philistines. David had a habit of doing that (being where he shouldn’t be…like on a rooftop when everyone else was at war). While he was away from the home camp (located in the Negev desert), the Amalekites raided. They burned everything and kidnapped everyone. When David and his mighty men returned, there was no small amount of wailing. They wept and mourned until they had no more strength to weep. Then the mighty turned on their leader. They talked of stoning him, because there was so much bitterness of soul. Then comes this (vs. 6): David was greatly distressed...But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
There it is. Jonathan passed on the “how to.” Even though by this time, Jonathan was dead, he’d left David with a little piece of himself. Good friends do that…good friends recognize that it’s not healthy to have to be needed forever. Good friends know they won’t always be in the arena with us. So, biblical buddies leave us with the strong parts of themselves…so we keep on keeping on…forever. That’s exactly what Jonathan had promised David when they first met (see 1 Samuel 18:1-5). At their first meeting, Jonathan took off his robe, his armor, even his sword and his bow and belt, and gave it to David. Those weren’t just things. These weren’t just any old second-hand gifts. Each item was symbolic: the robe represented Jonathan’s identity; the armor represented Jonathan’s strength; and the sword, bow, and belt were symbolic of Jonathan’s promise to protect and defend. Jonathan was true to his word. Good friends are. What biblical friends promise, they fulfill. Jonathan knew David would take the throne one day, so he did his best to prepare him, to strengthen him, to protect him for that day…
What a friend! Jonathan didn’t just die and leave the scene of David’s life. Jonathan lived on in David’s heart and memory forever, because of the greatness of the gifts he inherited: a new identity, where to go to gain his strength, and an ability to fight right.
Again – what a friend!
So, as I close, I ask myself a what question. What part of me, the best of me, am I leaving as a forever-inheritance to my friends?
