The Scriptures seem to point to John the Apostle/Evangelist as belonging to the first group of Jesus' friends. In modern lingo we'd call him a BFF ("best friend forever") of Jesus. John is often called "the beloved disciple" or "the disciple whom Jesus loved". Even Simon Peter, the head honcho among the Twelve, motions to John at the Last Supper to ask Jesus who's going to betray Jesus.
John's Gospel relates that at that Last Supper Jesus said: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends...I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father..." Take a minute to think about the implications of that statement for you and me. We already know, as Paul Harvey used to say, "the rest of the story". Jesus indeed did lay down his life, shedding his very life's blood, for all of us. Seems to me that that qualifies each and every one of us as definite BFF's of Jesus! So much so, that if he, for one second, stopped loving us we'd vanish into nothingness.
Thanks be to God, in this Christmastide especially, for our friendship with Emmanuel, God with us!
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