Translated that means Best Friends Forever.  I had one when I was in grade school.  We did everything together.  We walked to school;             we went to Brownies and Girl Scouts; we went shopping locally and by bus to the nearest city; we went to camp in the summer.  We shared everything and I was certain it would last forever.  But we went to different colleges, married and moved to different states, and drifted apart.  Oh, how I missed that friendship. 

In college I had the opportunity to form new BFF’s.  Living together gave us more opportunities to share with each other.  When we separated after graduation, it was painful.  But letters and occasional visits maintained the friendship.  Then first one, then the other, died.  I felt so alone.

Who are your best friends?  Have you always known them?  Could you share everything and know they would understand?

Joseph Scriven, author of a favorite hymn, knew what it was like to lose the relationships he counted on.  The night before his wedding, his fiancée drowned.  Later he moved, fell in love again, and got engaged.  In 1855 his new fiancée died of an illness before they ever walked down the aisle.  Such tragedy.

“That year, he wrote the hymn ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus.’ Interestingly he wrote it not to comfort himself, but his mother.” *    Even encumbered with such loneliness, he knew Jesus was his refuge.   Jesus would always listen, even when others were not available.

“What a Friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
everything to God in Prayer.”**

Jesus is there for us.  He is our very best friend.  He wants to hear from us.  He wants to hear everything that’s in our hearts.  Now that’s the best BFF we could ever have.  Hope you enjoy this rendition of the hymn by the Vagle Brothers.

Judy

*“How Sweet the Sound, page 106,” Laura L. Smith, Our Daily Bread Publishing, 2020

**What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Joseph M. Scriven, 1855