God is Indescribable - Friend

 

[Jesus said] “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” (John 15:12–17 ESV).

 

One of the most beloved of hymns is "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". It was originally written as a poem in 1855 by the Irish-born Canadian Joseph M. Scriven to comfort his mother during an illness. The words were later set to music in 1868 by the American composer Charles Crozat Converse, at which point it became the beloved hymn known today. Joseph Scriven's life was marked by significant personal tragedies, which imbued the words of his poem with a deep, personal resonance. On the eve of his first wedding in Ireland, his fiancée accidentally drowned in the River Bann. He moved to Canada in his mid-20s, seeking a new start. He fell in love again and planned to marry a woman named Eliza Catherine Roche, but she died of pneumonia shortly before their wedding in 1860. Around 1855, after receiving news that his mother was seriously ill in Ireland and unable to travel to her, Scriven wrote the poem to send to her as a source of private solace. The original title of the poem was "Pray Without Ceasing".

 

So many people have such an incomplete understanding of this part of the indescribable nature of God. They often picture God sitting on an ornate throne made of rare metals, adorned with priceless jewels, and upholstered in the finest fabric. From this lofty perch they imagine God as an uninvolved spectator to our loves. That’s simply not the picture of our God in the Scripture. Imagine for a moment that He isn’t sitting in lavishness associated with royalty but instead is sitting at the corner booth in a local coffee shop, or on the couch in your family room, eagerly waiting for you. Then as you enter, God, who is so excited to see you, leaps from his seated position and embraces you like a friend who longs to hear how you are doing and what you have been up to. The beauty of God is that he is not only the King of all creation but also the attentive friend who is always near.