After I wrote last week’s blog about Antony of Egypt, I found another story about him in a book I was reading for my devotions, A Season in the Desert: Making Time Holy by W. Paul Jones. Here’s the story as written in The Desert Fathers.

“Three Fathers used to go and visit blessed Anthony every year and two of them used to discuss their thoughts and the salvation of their souls with him, but the third always remained silent and did not ask him anything. After a long time, Abba Anthony said to him, ‘You often come here to see me, but you never ask me anything,’ and the other replied, ‘It is enough for me to see you, Father.'”

Jones’s point in using this story illustrate how the value of true friendships lies in the relationship itself, just being together, rather than in something one person expects to get from another. The world is full of stuff we use, knives and forks, hammers and screw drivers, cars and televisions, and so forth. There are people that we use also. I use the technicians at the car dealership to get my vehicle fixed, for example. But people are never just things to be used. People have value in themselves as God’s creatures. The strongest relationships in life are between people who regard each other as being of value just for who they are. That’s the way it is in a marriage, a family, among friends and, I pray, among Christians.

May the Lord help us to see the true worth of each another.

Read John 14:5-10 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne