One Velcro Friend

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

It was one of those nights that flashes back in our memory for years, like treasured pictures in a mental scrapbook. It was the early 1990s and the Soviet Union was beginning to break up. Estonia and Latvia had been under Soviet domination for years, with Christians often being persecuted and marginalized, even imprisoned and beaten. Our daughter was one of a team of college students, privileged to be one of the first Christian teams to be able to freely present Christ in Estonia and Latvia. They had just held some unforgettable meetings with believers in Riga, the capital of Latvia. They had heard some of the stories of the price some of those dear saints had paid for their loyalty to Jesus Christ. They had been through so much.

The team members bade their new friends an emotional farewell at church and they headed for the train station, where they eventually boarded the midnight train. But as they boarded, the railway platform was suddenly alive with the faces and the voices of the Latvian Christians they had left behind. They showed up en masse at the station for one last goodbye and a special sendoff. As our daughter settled into her seat on the train, she could hear the voices of those people joining together in a melody that echoed through the station. She didn't recognize the words - they were in Latvian, of course - but she surely recognized the song. As the train slowly began to pull out of the station, these who had endured so much were singing an old song that, at least for one college student, would never be the same again - "What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear." These people would know that, wouldn't they?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Velcro Friend."

That's what those people had learned through years of injustice and uncertainty and hardship - that Jesus is the "velcro friend" who sticks with you through it all. He wants to be that friend for you. People can fire you, abuse you, criticize you, divorce you, disappoint you, abandon you - but millions of us have found what those Latvian followers of Christ found - that Jesus is life's one and only "through it all" person. In fact, intimacy is born from difficulty. When the Apostle Paul said his passionate life goal was to "know Christ," he went on to say that involved knowing "the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings" ( Philippians 3:10). You never really know Jesus until you really, really need Jesus. And when you really, really need Him, He's really, really there.

The Son of God, the King of all kings, laid out the amazing relationship He wants to have with us as He was talking to His disciples just before His long, dark night of the cross - and the long, dark stretch that would follow for His disciples. In John 15, beginning with verse 15, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants ... I have called you friends." If you have that love relationship with Him, there is nothing the two of you can't handle - because as the Bible says, "if God is for us, who can be against us?" ( Romans 8:31).

And if you don't have that love relationship with Him, it can begin today. If you'll give your life to this One who loves you so deeply that He paid for your sins with His life. Our sins are very serious business, and they carry a death penalty - which Jesus paid for you. You've had a lot of relationships, and you hoped each one would be the ultimate harbor for your heart. It wasn't. Jesus is life's only safe harbor, and you need to be in the safety of His love. You don't need one more day without Him. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours," and let His forgiveness and His love into your lonely heart. I wrote a booklet about this moment when you begin with Him called Yours For Life. Just let me know you want it, and I'll send it to you.

"What a friend we have in Jesus." It's more than a song. It's a life you can have. Then no matter what the future holds, that will be your personal anchor - "what a friend I have in Jesus."