One of my go-to music albums over the past couple years is the soundtrack for the “David” show produced by Sight & Sound Theaters. They do an outstanding job at producing high quality music – especially for a company that’s not even specializing in producing music albums. One of my favorite songs on that album is “Creation Sings.” The song pictures creation “singing” praises to God by highlighting certain aspects of the beauty and majesty of that particular creation. What is the glory of the sea? – that it is deep and filled with life. What is the glory of the heavens? – it’s expanse. What is the glory of the mountains? – that they are built up to the sky. God himself takes light for his garment. At the climax of the song, the writer says, “So I will join the song as creation sings to you.” Well, what is the glory of man in the mind of this singer? – “…You call me your friend.” Creation is beautiful, glorious, majestic, powerful, awesome, etc. and as much as that is awesome, what is more awesome is that the God who made all of this calls us his friend. What a special thought!!!

Yes, God is our Creator, infusing each of us with uniqueness, purpose and meaning. God is our Father, guaranteeing us love, acceptance, provision, protection, guidance, etc. What is entailed in the fact that he is our friend?     

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you” (John 15:13-15).

What is different between the friend/friend relationship and the parent/child relationship? I think it’s mainly on the matter of “peerhood.” There isn’t a formal hierarchy amongst peers. People meet each other and decide to go deeper in a relationship because of a mutual desire. God didn’t have to make me. He didn’t get stuck with me. He didn’t have to save me. He doesn’t have to continue to call me and want to “hang out” with me. BUT HE DOES!!! He does willingly and cheerfully – and always will! Of course friends get upset and frustrated with one another, as I’m sure the Lord is with me often, but it doesn’t discourage him from coming back again. 

Friends tell each other secrets. They share their hearts with each other in a way that they might not even share with loving parents. Friends feel “safe” in that you’re not really accountable to them, and they are probably in a similar stage of life that you are. As if God couldn’t do something even more glorious, he reveals to us again how humble he is! He so wants to identify with us. Whatever you think of who God is, your thinking is too small and not impressed enough. The Creator and Sustainer of the Universe; the Lord of Heaven and Hell; the Ancient Father of Humanity; the King of all Authorities; the Eternal Sage – He wants to spend time with me, to make my issues his own. He grapples with my minuscule problems and cares like a fellow traveler (not because he doesn’t know the answers, or have the ability to just think the solution and it will happen, but because he knows that I need a friend to do it with me).   

Do you want God to be your friend? In the Scriptures above, Jesus said that we are his friends “if we do what he commands us to do.” His primary commandment is that we would repent of our sins and embrace him as our Savior and Lord. This is equivalent to us removing ourselves as the controller of our lives and replacing Christ as the Controller. In the same way that it is fitting for a novice to yield to the advice of a master, so it is fitting that we would yield control of our lives to the Master of all Life. Not only is it fitting, but it is obligatory. Refuse to surrender to Christ and you will not be his friend, but his enemy – a truly eternally cursed position to be in. Psalms 25:14, “The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.” We must fear God, which means that we must acknowledge and respect his true nature, power and authority. When we do, not only will he forgive us and call us on to his team, but he will “reveal to us his secrets” like a friend would. What a glorious truth!