Friendship With God
in the Cool of the Day

In searching through the Bible to look for stories of friendships and what we can learn from them to apply to our own relationships and social life, we don't have to read far. Immediately after the creation of Adam and then Eve, God had a habit of walking in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day to walk and to talk with them. The ideal (first) people had a friendship with God from the start.

It doesn't say how much time passed from chapter 2 to chapter 3 where Eve yielded to the serpent's temptation, and then Adam yielded to Eve's invitation, and they both ate of the fruit of the one tree they had been warned NOT to eat of, but that very same evening, God came walking in the garden as the sun was setting to have their evening walk together. Only this time they were hiding in shame and embarrassment.

Have you ever noticed that no matter if it has been windy and burly all day, at about sunset the winds die down and there is a wonderful peace outside? That is a great time to go for a walk.

You might say that you prefer to walk alone with your own thoughts, not with anyone else. Well, God is the ultimate Gentleman and will not force Himself upon you or me, but He can easily hear our thoughts and He will follow a discrete distance and be instantly at our side if we invite Him into our thoughts. All our other friendships in life will go much better if we cultivate this friendship with God first and learn to receive and give love in this relationship above all others.

Let's face it, there in an innate groping for God in all of us, whether we recognize it right away or not, and He is constantly wooing us and trying to communicate His love to us. If we really start to think, and to seek truth and understanding, even when life seems an unsolvable puzzle, we will find ourselves drawn to that Light. The more openly we walk towards it, the more we will find ourselves interacting with God. The more we understand just how great and marvelous He is, the more our admiration turns to worship.

Be frank with Him about yourself, and your seeking. The puzzle will begin to dissolve, and understanding will grow. It grows even more when we respond to Him, look for more about Him in His Word, which is the Bible, and try to please Him. After a while He will show us that we can not please Him in our own strength, but we can in His! He provides it gladly - but on His terms. This is where our walking and talking with God - our friendship with God, (and I say that reverently) begins. At first we may only seek Him out for a walk and talk when we are in a crisis mode and can't think who else to turn to, but eventually we learn that we can connect with Him daily, many times a day, not just when we go for that walk and talk at sunset.

Although He has millions upon millions of friends, God always has time for me and you, and it is always personal time. What a Friend! What's more, when we begin to reach out and pass on to others the love and tenderness God shows us, He is pleased and begins to confide in us and provide the resources to befriend more and more people.

It is true that God is holy and just and Almighty, but He is also a Friendly God, and wants to help us be a good friend too.

My Theme of Friendships

My novel, Ruthe's Secret Roses, and this related site have a Friendship theme. By getting to know and follow around the heroine, Ruthe, you can learn a lot about friendships, and that there is one that is the golden key to enriching all your other friendships and making them more satisfying. The site is more like a perfumed poupouri of articles and pages on that theme, and I've started a series on the friendships we observe in the Bible and what practical insights we can gain for our own friendships by thinking about them.

You may also subscribe to the ezine edition and have it delivered to you every week, using the subscribe form in the right column on this page (or almost any page)..

Are your friendships important to you? You'll want to read the first eight chapters of the book or order it in either softcover or e-book formats, Ruthe's Secret Roses.

Or, the softcover from BookLocker