One of the saddest things in life is to lose a best friend. Sometimes a person can be your playmate and best friend for months—and then switch to a different best friend all of a sudden. Many things can cause this to happen and often we don’t even know why.

Maybe we said or did something proud or wrong or we had a bad habit that disappointed our friend. It’s wise to stop and think if something like that might be why. But many, many times, it’s nothing we did wrong at all. Jesus never did anything wrong in His whole life on earth. But this happened to Him.

It did not surprise Jesus; He knew it was going to happen ahead of time. In a prophecy given in the book of Psalms, it is written:

“All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt. An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me” (Psalm 41:7–9).

This kind of thing will happen more in the future. “Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another” (Matthew 24:10).

It’s sad to think about this, but it’s better to know ahead of time than to be surprised. When we see prophecy fulfilled, it makes us love and trust our wonderful Jesus even more—because it reminds us that He knows everything and always tells us the truth.

If we lose a friend, then we can always find a way to make another. The Bible tells us how: “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly” (Proverbs 18:24, first part). And even when we feel friendless, we can still remember the second part of the verse: “There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” and “He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Proverbs 18:24 second part; Hebrews 13:5). Yes, that Friend who never leaves us or forsakes us is Jesus. “His is a love that fails not nor forsakes.” (Education, p. 90.)

What’s really amazing is that when we finally get to see Jesus in person, “one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends” (Zechariah 13:6).

How forgiving is our Lord! After all He suffered, He will say that the place where He was crucified was the house of His “friends”! May we be as kindhearted as He! —BHM