Being: Sam's friend

I went to see my friend Sam in London this week. (missing, as it happens, all of Thursday's drama at Warren Street Tube by about an hour, thank you Lord)

Anyway, Sam and his new wife Martha, pictured here at their wedding, have the most wonderfully random life - he is, by far the poshest person I know, and says wonderful things like "It's all rather rum" all the time.

Anyway, to add to the randomness of his life so far Sam is off to work as a missionary in the Gambia from September, and Martha is going to do something like train the President of Gambia's soldiers how to ride their horses, and write articles about Africa for Country Life.

Anyway, I went to see Sam, and he was prearing some stuff to study with students on the book of malachi. We were discussing Malachi 2, which is ostensibly all about divorce and marrying outside the people of God. But look closely, and there is a deeper principle at work - the principle that because God has made a covenant with us, he expects us to reflect that in the way we relate to each other. Now I suppose that's especially true in God's best illustration of covenants, marriage, but it is also true because we are, all Christians, in a covenant relationship with one another.

And discussing this with Sam is great, because as I was reflecting, I realised that it is the very type of friendship that he was modelling with me. Listening to me burble on about things which he knows much more than me, listening to me chatting away like the world's authority on Malachi when he's studied it recently too, putting up with my general silliness about his Brideshead Revisited type existence, and still loving me, laughing with me, and feeling rather rum about the whole thing - he's a friend who has really modelled God's commitment to me in his commitment to me.

So thank you Lord, for friends - not just because they are great and brighten life (although they do) but because of what they teach us about you and your commitment to us. And thanks Sam. Respect.