We all have a desire for friendship, fellowship, communion, real community and doing life together with other people. A beautiful picture of friendship is laid out in Matthew 15. We are called to live selflessly and for others. That may sound nice, until we count the cost and see the hardship that might bring. But it's always worth it.

I hope to cultivate this kind of friendship in my life and encourage others to as well. It's not easy, it takes time, work, purposefulness and vulnerability. But we were created to do life together.

“Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And He went up on the mountain and sat down there. And great crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at His feet, and He healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.” – Matthew 15:29-31

Healing comes from the feet of Jesus. Is that where we run when our hearts need healing? Is that where we bring people who need healing? Do we have friends who bring us to His feet when we are downcast and crippled?

What made crowds wonder and glorify Jesus was not that His people never experienced normal hardships in life; it was that – in His compassion – He healed the lame, mute, blind, deaf, diseased. He reversed the irreversible. He healed the incurable. He saved the sinful.

When we experience trials and pain, we must meet Him – sitting on the mountain – at His feet. We must bring others there, and have those who will carry us there when we’re too weak to walk. Carrying the lame, aiding the crippled or leading the blind up the mountain to meet Jesus was surely no easy task. But they were healed. The difficult trek was worth it. And the world wondered.

Jesus, I pray that Your people would be a people found at Your feet and bringing others up to meet You.

Let us do the difficult and carry the weak.

Let us meet you on the mountain, sit at Your feet and see Your face when its hard to move, walk or see.

Let the world marvel – not at the easy/trouble-free Christian-life – but rather at Your work in our hardships, Your healing power in our lives.

Let us run to You.

Let our eyes be on You and not the wind and waves of life.

Jehovah Rapha (the LORD your Healer), be close.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit –Psalm 34:18