The more time we spend with people the better we come to know them and the longer it takes for us to say what they are really like. We begin to enjoy the many rich aspects of their personality. Then we feel that we can tell them our story and listen to theirs.

In the bible we find the stories that people have told about their friendship with God, especially the people who knew Jesus. But we also find the stories of people who struggled to see how God was present with them in their journey through life before Jesus was born and also after he had gone back to the Father.

As they looked at the story of their own lives and real the stories of other people’s friendship with God, they came to see a God who was indeed with them in their journey through life, someone who didn’t like to interfere with their freedom, but who promised to be with them and to help them – as long as they were open to his help and love.

It’s through reading these stories and then talking to God about what we have read that we come to know him better  and come to appreciate just how much of a friends he is to us.

As with any friendship, we also come to understand ourselves a bit better. We begin to see our own story more clearly and realise that our story and God’s really do belong together.

We see more and more that our story is a story all about hope.

Dermott Donnelly and Gerard Conroy, How to survive the rest of your life, Pauline Books & Media, Uk.