The Names of Jesus--Day 26

Good Morning!

Our name for Jesus for today is: The Friend of Sinners

"The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' " Luke 7:34, NIV

A friend. I think having a friend is one of the very best things that can happen in this life. I absolutely LOVE this picture of these two grandmas, laughing as they look at something on a cell phone. Blessed indeed is the man or woman who has a true friend. I know, because I have a very dear friend that I have had for years. We knew each other in B.C. time--that's "before children," in case you do not know. Newly married, my husband's job took us literally across the country from where I had lived all my life. Everyone at our new town/church/job treated me very kindly, but there was no one that I just hit it off with. I was SO lonely, and I started praying for a friend. I prayed for a full year, before one day we met a new couple that had just moved there and went to a church activity. I knew right away--she was my new friend!!!! Maybe she didn't know it at the start, but "I" did! And what I always found amusing was that God had moved that couple there from the very state I had previously grown up in. I prayed for a year, and God heard my prayers and answered them by moving that couple across the country as well! :)

A real friend is not necessarily someone who is the same as you. My dear friend is very different from me in many ways, but she has been a wonderful blessing and has helped me to see things from a different point of view. I have heard it said that a friend is someone who knows all about you--but likes you anyway! This could not be more true than when speaking about Jesus. Who else knows us the way He does? Who else can read our heart, knowing the very inmost thoughts and feelings? No one knows us better than our Creator--yet He loved us enough that He chose to die in our stead.

In our verse above, it was not ment as a compliment of Jesus when he was accused of being a "friend of sinners." Yet how true that was--He IS a friend of sinners--and that is exactly what He wanted to be. My very best friend.

Beautiful, wonderful Jesus.