So we have company staying with us this weekend.  They are great friends from when we lived in Malibu.  Actually the wife's dad grew up here at Campbell and went to church here when he was a kid.  These are friends that we did everything with when we lived in Malibu.  We went to church, skied together, discovered Starbucks, went to movies, hung out at each others apartments, vacationed and ate out a lot together.  We miss them now that we live 7 hours away from each other.  But friendships like this endures distance and time.  I know that when they arrive we will pick up right where we left off.

Amy and I have been working hard to get the house ready for them.  Cleaning, scrubbing, vacuuming, laundry and all the other types of tidying that people do when they have guests.  It is hard work, but the hours of being together, catching up, sharing memories from days gone by are worth the effort.  I can't wait for them to get here and share the weekend together.  Friends are great, and having friends visit is great.

Jesus in John 15 says the He doesn't call us slaves anymore, but we are now friends.  What a radical (not radical as in "Way Cool" but radical as in overwhelming) concept!  The Creator of the universe desires friendship with us!  Even after all of our betrayal, and selfishness. . . God still desire us to be in relationship with Him, but its more than that,  . . its FRIENDSHIP!

Just a chapter earlier in John 14, Jesus says that He is going to prepare a place for us when He is talking about heaven.  I like to imagine that He is scrubbing the place, vacuuming, cleaning . . . just getting things ready for us and when it is our time, we are not only going to spend a weekend, but eternity catching up, hanging out, building our friendship.  Hanging out with God forever and ever and ever is going to be AMAZING!  But it is also amazing that God designed things so that we could be friends NOW!   Chew on that one for a while...