When someone asks you to describe who Jesus is, what do you say?

Words that come quickly include brave and holy and pure and immortal. We also describe Jesus as a prophet, a teacher, the Messiah and Son of God – and Savior. Perhaps, on some level, it is easier to describe Jesus in ways that reinforce His Divinity.

But Jesus also desires that we know and recognize Him as a friend. Why? Because it is our awareness of Jesus’ friendship and humanity that changes everything.

I love this image of Jesus from The Shack, a fictional story about a grieving father, Mack, who finds God in the midst of a devastating tragedy. In Chapter 7, Mack and Jesus go out to the dock to look at the stars. Here is an excerpt from the chapter:

“They made their way three-quarters up the dock and lay down on their backs, looking up. The elevation of this place seemed to magnify the heavens, and Mack reveled in seeing stars in such numbers and clarity. Jesus suggested that they close their eyes for a few minutes, allowing the lasting effects of dusk to disappear for the night. Mack complied, and when he finally opened his eyes, the sight was so powerful that he experienced vertigo for a few seconds. It almost felt like he was falling up into space, the stars racing toward him as if to embrace him. He lifted his hands, imagining that he could reach out and pluck the diamonds, one by one, off a velvet-black sky.

“’Wow!’ he whispered.

“’Incredible!’ whispered Jesus. ‘I never get tired of this.’” – Excerpt from The Shack1

Through this scene, Young paints an amazing picture of Jesus as our friend.

It is exactly how I imagine Him.

Coming to know Jesus as a friend changes things for us. In Young’s book, Mack’s encounter with Jesus compels him to ultimately make peace with the tragedy that has occurred in his family. Forgiveness is an unthinkable act for Mack, and yet with Jesus’ friendship and love, the unthinkable happens.

Life with Jesus is about learning to trust in Him as our Savior – and it is about deepening our friendship with Him. Jesus desires our trust and friendship so that, ultimately, we might love as He loves.

Remember that Jesus is Love:

“Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is Love. This is how God shows His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is Love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us [first] and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4: 7-10

Jesus knows that by loving those who are His own in the world, He is sharing with them the love and mercy of God the Father. So too, when we love, are we sharing the love and mercy of God with the people He has blessed us to know.

Jesus makes the same promise to us today that He made to his disciples and friends centuries ago:

“I am with you always, even until the end of time.” Matthew 28: 20

Jesus will never leave us. Cultivating our friendship with Him expands our lives in ways we cannot even imagine.

The longing that exists deep within your heart, to love and to be loved, is an invitation to know the friendship of Jesus.

“From the very first time I came to know the Lord, the gaze of my soul became drowned in Him for all eternity. Each time the Lord draws close to me and my knowledge of Him grows deeper, a more perfect love grows within my heart.” – Excerpt from the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul2

The love and friendship of Jesus will change your life.

1 Wm. Paul Young, The Shack (CA: Windblown Media, 2007), 109.

2Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul (Massachusetts: Marian Press, 2020), Verses 231, page 116.