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, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:13-16)As I write this, Betty and I are watching "Lonesome Dove" on TV. Many people believe this is the best western ever made and I would find it hard to argue that point. I'm also very partial to "Open Range."
Lonesome Dove is the story of two old friends, Woodrow F. Call and Augustus 'Gus' McCrae. Woodrow is played by Tommy Lee Jones and Gus is played by Robert Duvall. They are both excellent horsemen so it's fun to watch them sit a horse throughout this movie.
Woodrow and Gus are two former Texas Rangers who have been friends for many years and they have been together through many different and sometimes extreme experiences. They are very different personalities. Woodrow is tight-knit and follows the rules, at least the rules that he sets for himself and others. He has a dream to be a cattle rancher in Montana. Gus is a loose, take each day as it comes type of guy who sees life as one big game - with him as the expected winner.
I suspect if they had not been thrown together as Texas Rangers they would not have been friends since they were so different.
The story line has a lot of aspects - the people who come into and out of Woodrow and Gus's lives, the antagonist in the story -Blue Duck - a rogue half-breed, the cattle drive to Montana, etc. However, the main story line is about the deep and abiding friendship between Woodrow and Gus - a friendship based on respect and trust.
Their shared experiences give them a deep appreciation and even love (although neither of them would admit that) for each other. As much as they argue and put each other down, it is clear that there is a closeness that is found only in the best of friendships.
My closest friend ever is Betty. We have been through a lot together. Even when we were still dating, I watched Betty go through the loss of her mother to cancer. Betty was the only one of the four kids who could take the time to care for her mother so she dropped out of college for the Fall quarter. She nursed her mother through all the difficult times up to her death in early December. I saw a depth of courage and fortitude in Betty that I had not seen before and I have seen it many times since.
We shared the four years of my time in the Navy during the Vietnam War when I was gone to sea for almost three years of that time - twice to Vietnam.
We shared the ups and downs of moving nine times in eleven years. We shared the anguish of losing friends for various reasons. We shared the deaths of her father and my mother and father. We shared several surgeries for me over the years and Betty's horse riding accident a year and a half ago, followed by her emergency appendectomy.
There is no one else with whom I have shared so much of my life. The next closest are our two sons, Wade Daniel and Chris, whom I also consider very close friends as well as sons. They are both men and husbands whom I respect and love.
Jesus told his disciples that he now called them friends. This was at the end of his earthly ministry - after three years of shared experiences with them. I'm sure that was a surprise for the disciples because I believe they were just beginning to get a glimpse of who Jesus really was and were probably putting him up on a pedestal in their minds.
Yet Jesus understood what true friendship is - a deep sharing of ourselves and our lives with someone in a way that is special with just a few people.
Over the years I'm beginning to learn that I can share my life with Jesus and, through the experiences we share together we can and are becoming good friends.
I hope and pray you are all blessed with a few people whom you are privileged to call good friends and that you might know Jesus as friend as well as Savior and Lord.
Today has been a quiet day. We exercised this morning and then Betty went to the chiropractor to get straightened out (bad pun, I know).
This afternoon, we watched the movie, "The Tale of Desperaux," the story of a small, heroic mouse with big eyes and ears. I love heroic movies - even heroic movies about a mouse.
