Friendship is linked from the top down and back up

The trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit loves one another and is also the same God that we all love. In this way, there already exist a loving relationship within the Trinity and this loving relationship model is spread to us as well. John 14:21, 23 states "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." .... If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him". Through this, Jesus is teaching and commanding us to obey and love him and in the same way, not only will He love us but his Father as well.

Jesus spoke in Matt 22:37-40, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Thus, after the immediate command to love God, it's the command to love those around us, people that we come into contact with.

Friends, who can do without them. One can't really express the meanings behind the feelings you experience when you're in their presence. You can be just yourself, feeling accepted, loved, able to express thoughts without been judged and being offered listening ears. In this way, we experience a foretaste of heaven: encouragement, sympathy, care, laughter, bonding, sensing someone's soul. Pro 17:17 states, "A friend loves at all times"

To help us to gain the emotional and relational skills we need to engage in a closer relationship with God, God offers a school of love through experiences with human friendships. Not only are human friendships a joy to be in, they are also a means to deepen our relationship with God. Our close relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ are essentially very important to Christian living than previously thought.

As i look back to the Saturday where we share about what Mkkadesh means to us, we are also effectively saying that after God, friends in this cell has special meanings to us. We can't deny the huge influence that each one of us have on one another. Of course, been humans also mean one gets the full package as well. Hurts, pains, tears, frustrations, unfulfilled expectations, doubts, rumours, misunderstandings and many more occur from time to time in the cell. Although in almost all cases, we do in unknowingly, we still end up hurting someone. And yes, the writer here has given his fair share of heartaches to everyone out there as well, which I'm sorry about and please continue to forgive me cos i know there might be more to come.

That aside, the joyful knowledge is God's grace, mercy and love allows each one of us to forgive and grow stronger in our friendships with one another. In doing so, like taking part in communion and asking for forgiveness and forgiving others as well, we increase our individual capacity to love one another. God experiences hurts from our actions and yet he has never given up hope in us and love us just the same from the 1st day we were created in our mother womb. How great is that capacity to love? Unmeasurable ! Do you want to even reach near that level to love?

As we grow older and draw deeper in love with God, in the same way, we'll grow deeper in our ability to love one another. This despite when in a friendship, when one party gives to another and gets nothing or even hurts back in return, our faith to continue to love is truly tested. But if each one of us here in Mkkadesh loves God, we'll be able to love one another even greater cos we are indeed obeying his commandments. It's a wonderful experience in knowing that you are loved by him and you can love one another in a greater level because He first love us.

Therefore, whatever happens next yr and the the yrs to come, let's continue to love one another to the best that our capacity allows and pray that our capacity to love will grow exponentially.