This speaks as loud to me today as it did about a year ago when I wrote it…maybe even louder. Jesus, the one friend you can always count on. Belong to. Be loved by. Thank God for that. I don’t deserve that…

I belonged before I believed. I believed I belonged. I felt I belonged. He made me feel I belonged. A year ago I wouldn’t have understood this. But it makes such perfect sense now. A year ago Jesus was a complete stranger to me. Now. Now. Wow. He has become my friend. Jesus, friend of sinners. I never got that. Not that I didn’t believe, I just didn’t understand it was possible. This love, His love, the church’s love, helped me to see it was possible. Helped me to belong, feel belonged, so I could return, return every Sunday and in the process, to accept Jesus in my life. Wow. This speaks volumes to me. It just clicked today. Today. Everyday. Everyday. We have a chance to share His love. Everyday He walks beside us. Everyday He’s there to catch me when I slip, to remind me to be gentle, to whisper in my ear when I’m about to step out of control. I can’t say I always listen, I definitely push Him away more than I should. But what a friend that is. A friend that is still with me even when I’m not available to Him. Isn’t that the kind of friend we desire to be or the kind of person we desire to share a friendship with? Hmmmm. Somedays I’m better at it than other days. The whole friendship thing. To anyone. My family. My short list of friends. I fall so completely short. Somedays the only thing that picks me up, is stopping and accepting Jesus as my friend again and again. Over and over. Morning and night. Today and tomorrow. He’s still there. He doesn’t walk away when I’m snotty or turn His back on me because I’m just being my moody self. Instead He’s over there, whispering, chela, chela….chela, look around you, look…what are you doing? Look right in front of you. That grin, those flowers, your home, your family…Me. What more could you need or want? And then I crawl into my humble shell and realize how right He is. How right He is. How right I am with Him. How being right with Him is transforming me from the inside out. Right in the terms of right. So many definitions of the word right. I would choose to use the definition of being righted. Stood up. To be restored to a normal condition. He has picked me up and righted me countless times. He has renewed my heart, my soul. With the love of Jesus Christ, amazing grace, and the Holy Spirit living inside, a freshness from the inside out has started to creep into my life. An understanding, a peace, a movement from dark to light, a transformation. I’m amazed at the strength I’m able to pull from this. It’s not that there aren’t struggles, battles, quarrels, adversities, challenges, hardships. It’s not that at all. It’s not that it takes it all away, by far that’s definitely not it. But by accepting His friendship, His love, His price for sin, accepting Him as our savior, we can be washed clean, we can forever be loved, we can start anew…that’s what I meant by no greater friendship…that’s what I meant by a love that is strong enough to right me over and over, to show me how to love harder, forgive more, believe, push through…who doesn’t need a friend like that? Who doesn’t want to be a friend like that? A friend available at all times, a friend in Jesus Christ. A friend who died, a friend, so a sinner like me can accept His love and become new…wow. How overwhelming is that? It boggles my mind still, the concept seems irrational, but my heart tells me it’s real. The peace in my heart covers any doubt, the love moves me to press on, to walk hand in hand with Him, to pursue a life long friendship that is transforming my heart every day that I walk with Him. With Him, I belong. I belong with Him. This earth, those worldly possessions has got nothing on the love of Jesus. And it’s free. And it’s available to anyone, good friend or not, right or wrong, His love is right there, on every side of you, ready when you are, patiently waiting for your acceptance…Give Grace A Hug❤️
Romans 5:1-21 

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us….