We need one another. Our walk with God rests upon our walk with people. We have to love people and cherish our relationships with the people God sends into our lives to support and care for us. These people are family members, teachers, coaches, co-workers, and others who help us to get through difficult situations and who make our good times even better. Some people do hurt us and they betray us. They use us. But there are special people that God sends to us that regardless of what goes down in the relationship, they are still there for us, and we are there for them. They are called friends.

These people love us unconditionally, and when we need them, they will do their best to be there for us. Solomon wrote: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls. For he has no one to help him up,” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10. Some of these friends, we do not talk to everyday. But we know that they are there to help us up. We still feel their love and protection. One of the most hurtful things that can happen to someone is to lose that friend. The friend may move away; a friend may turn out to be an enemy; a person may fall in love with the friend; or the friend may die. Sometimes our own behavior can put an end to a good friendship.

There are all sorts of reasons for feeling the pain of losing a best friend. I know this pain all too well. I have lost some really good friends. The truth is good friends, real friends, are rare. When we find one, there’s nothing like that feeling—because it is truly a gift from God. We need good, healthy friendships. This is why God sent us Jesus Christ, because when our earthly friends are not available, we can always find a friend in Jesus.

In those times when we feel forsaken, when our secrets are too dark, or the burdens are too much for we mere humans, we have a friend in Jesus. Jesus will bring us comfort, healing, and restoration. He is a wonderful friend. Sometimes he is the only friend that we have. We may feel alone on our jobs, with not even one friend. We may feel alone in our marriages, with the person we married (who was once our best friend) now our worse enemy.

We may feel alone even in a room filled with people. This is a very dangerous place to be, because if the devil can convince us that we are isolated from other people, including God—we are vulnerable to his attacks. Be encouraged. We must know that we are never isolated from Jesus Christ, our friend. There is nothing that can separate us from his love and comfort.

Regardless of our sins, shortcomings, and how others feel about us, Jesus is our friend—and there is nothing we can do about it. The songwriter was right saying, “What a friend we have in Jesus.”