Yesterday I had the task of conducting the funeral service of David, a very good friend, who passed away on 20 March. If you had met him 15 years ago, you would have been surprised that he would ever become a close friend. In many ways he had led a lonely and aimless life. He had known very little of family love and affection. He was unwanted and unloved by his parents. He felt this lack of affection, deeply and he filled the void with the excessive consumption of alcohol.

What little friendship he experienced was found in boarding school and a short spell in the navy.

However, later on in his life, I was privileged to witness a dramatic change that came over him, when he discovered from the Bible that there is ‘a FRIEND who sticks closer than a brother’, Proverbs chapter 18 verse 24. By invitation, he entered a building, where Christians meet in the city of Bath, UK, and heard about a God, who loved him and gave His only Son to be His Saviour from sin. He listened to this message of salvation and for the first time in his life discovered a love that could save him from his aimless life and would never let him go! From this point, we shared the same faith and he became a true FRIEND!

It was sad and yet a real privilege to oversee his funeral service yesterday, knowing that his body was present with us in a coffin but he was not there! He was absent from his body but present with the Lord!

You, too, can know God and Jesus Christ as ‘FRIENDS WHO STICK CLOSER THAN A BROTHER’. I am close to my twin brother and I was close to David but I am closer to God through my faith in Jesus Christ as my Saviour!