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"Thinking He was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for Him among their relatives and friends" (Luke 2:44).

Early in life I began to collect friends although it took some years of retrospect to realize that is what I was doing. I can divide my life in phases based upon location; my childhood in Belton MO, high school in Independence, MO, college in Springfield MO, pastoring churches in northern PA and New England, and for the last 24 years here in Lancaster County PA. I have collected lifelong friends in each location.*

One day last week we took a reminiscing tour for me. I showed Ester where we lived in Independence and where I attended high school. We then drove to Belton Missouri where I spent my childhood. Before kindergarten we moved what at the time was a step up for our family of six to a newer development. The house and development have not aged well. In fact it looks like someone just moved out and left it vacant.

Just before starting first grade a family of seven, soon to be eight, moved in directly across the street and they had a boy my age! That was some sixty-five years ago Dave is the friend I've had the longest contact with in life. We went through grade school and Junior High before my family moved from the area. But Dave and I have stayed in contact all these years. He was the best man in our wedding. We still see one other every couple of years and reminisce about our childhood while our wives patiently listen to our stories for the umpteenth time.

I pulled up beside the house from our childhood years and called Dave, who also follows the Lord. We talked for some 30 minutes as Ester patiently (I think) listened on. He's had an amazing business career, starting a company that has grown to 180 employees, married with two children, and also has many friends.

Of course since our marriage we have mostly mutual friends and for many years now we've been taking photographs of these friends. They are placed in a folder on the website labeled "people" and many have been placed up on this site. Since around 2005 when we began archiving and posting photos on our site, we have over 1,800 photos in the "people" folder with some duplicates taken at different times of course.

If you join us in our home for a meal we'll likely ask you to sign our guest registry (if we remember), and we'll likely take your photo. It helps instill memories of past visits from friends and family over the years. We encourage our readers to keep a Guest Book since we regret that we didn't keep one from the beginning of our marriage as some do.

We enjoy having friends visit our home, but we've also traveled with friends to events like CREATION, Family Camp or other settings where many out of town people are staying for several days.

We look back at a time in Scripture when Jesus was only a boy and did just that.  When he was 12 years old His parents took him to the Passover festival in Jerusalem. When His parents headed home, "thinking He was in their company, they traveled on for a day". Then they realized Jesus was not with them and began looking for Him among their "relatives and friends".

Notice that His parents' looked for Him among their "relatives and friends".

Of course we know that Jesus was actually back with the religious leaders, but the wording of the text indicates that it was Christ's practice to spend time with relatives and friends. That's where His parents assumed He would be so that's where their search began.

I suppose we don't think much about Jesus having friends as a little boy. But He surely did. It's normal and healthy to have friends and the Scripture declares that Jesus "grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men" (Luke 2:52). Growing in favor with men would surely include developing lasting friendships. At the closing of "It's A Wonderful Life" there's a note Clarence left for George Bailey that states, "No man is a failure who has friends".

Jesus considered His disciples to be friends. He said to them, "You are My friends if you do what I command" (John 15:14). Obviously, if they chose to walk away from Jesus' teaching about God's commands that would make them uncomfortable in being with Jesus and put distance between them. Later, after Christ's resurrection, in one of His encounters with His disciples Jesus has this exchange, "Friends, haven't you any fish?" (John 21:5).

The Apostle Paul was also blessed by many friends. We read in this rather obscure passage, "The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs" (Acts 27:3). Paul seemed to have friends wherever he went which means he was regularly making friends along the way.

We thank God for our friendship collection. The really neat thing about this collection, unlike other earthbound collections, is that our friendship can continue throughout our eternal dwelling in heaven. All our friends who follow Christ will be among those with whom we spend eternity where we will continue to enjoy meaningful conversations!

Perhaps you will consider your friendship collection today. Make an effort today to contact an old friend. You might also consider making a new friend. It will bless you and it will also bless your friend!

Be encouraged today! Hebrews 3:13