Proverbs 18:24 A friend… in the colorful language of the Hebrew people, means relationship. It can be the bond between husband and wife, people who enjoy each other‘s company, or our relationship with God. In scripture, Abraham was considered a friend of God. Within that bond of friendship, trust is born, confidence is established, and we come to know what it means to be selfless, beginning to understand how someone could lay down their life down for a friend. With godly wisdom, Solomon describes three types of people, someone of many friends… Perhaps in order to have that many friends we have to be someone everybody likes, not ruffling anyone’s feathers, causing no waves, no friction. Solomon indicates this is a bad friend… could it be because we don’t get close enough to say and do hard things? There are friends by blood, brothers, that close family relationship where we most often come to know unconditional love. Then, tucked in between the lines, Solomon brings us to a friend who’s even closer than a brother. Two hearts knit together. It doesn’t say they agree on everything, it doesn’t give a required percentage of shared interests, only that they’re drawn together and experience a closeness unlike any other relationship. Friendship is a matter of the heart. Does God draw people together, perhaps an unlikely match providing opportunity to learn from each other and to grow, as ‘iron sharpens iron’? Lord, you have blessed us with Fellowship, relationship… Friends. Help us to be good friends.