God built us in a funny way, because he built us with a need for friendship. Some of us love to have lots of friends, others of us only need one friend, but most of us, need friendship. The problem with friendship is, it’s a risky business. It’s risky, because you have to put your trust in a person, in order for them to be your friend. There also seems to be some sort of connection between the amount of trust you put in someone and the depth of friendship you have with them. Some friends at your school or college are just passing acquaintances and you put little trust in them, whilst you may have other friends who know you much better and whom your trust much more. Jesus was the same, he had hundreds of friends and followers, but he trusted the twelve, much more, and even within the twelve, there one or two he, trusted even more. Jesus also knew the danger of trusting people, because he knew all too well that people stuff up and betray our trust. Jesus was ultimately betrayed by one of his close friends, Judas, and not only that, he knew Judas would betray him ahead of time. So the next time a friend stuffs up and tells others something that you wanted kept quiet, you can know that you are in good company. Jesus knew the pain of betrayal just like you do, but Jesus was also able to forgive people. That’s the best example for us. We too, should forgive people that hurt us. That doesn’t mean that we are not careful about what we say to them in the future, because trust, must be earned. But it does mean, that we understand that everyone makes mistakes, and we give them another chance. Because, with Jesus as our example, we can be strong enough to forgive.
