Good Friends and Good Friday

I hope you have one or two, because they are rare. Those lifelong friends who, when you're with them, no matter how long you've been apart, everything just feels normal. I've got a few -- not too many -- but that's OK.

Last night, one of those friends arrived here in West Africa. Well, I should say two, because although I've known Alan a little longer, I've come to have almost the same degree of familiarity with his wife, Lanita.

Lanita was my replacement. Of course, she also filled places I could never fill. Alan and I were roommates in college. We lived off campus in a haunted antebellum mansion for a while, and then upgraded to nicer, but cheaper accomodations. A week after I moved out, Lanita moved in, but only after I had served as best man in their wedding. That was 22 years ago, and we've remained good friends ever since. They and Maureen also click, so it makes a great reunion when we're together. They've always been great to extend hospitality to us we've visited them in the States, so now it's our turn to welcome them to our turf.

I know how good, how comfortable, how secure I feel in those kinds of relationships. Then my mind goes to One who was utterly alone on that dark Friday. Those whom he had befriended deserted him. Even his Father, for one unimaginably desolate moment, forsook him. And he did it for me.

Yet we do not call that day dark Friday, but Good Friday. It was a good day, in spite of its darkness, in a way that only God can transform evil into good. He brought Supreme Good out of supreme evil.

So it makes me reflect again on the nature of good and evil, and marvel at the goodness of God. Evil is not ultimate, but God is. And as I thank Him for the friends I have in Alan and Lanita, my heart is filled with much greater gratitude for the friend I have in Jesus.