After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.
1 Samuel 18:1-3

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Matthew 16:15-16

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Matthew 16:22-23

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Growing up, my sister and I shared a bedroom wall. When I felt alone, I crawled into my closet and knocked. I waited, and then I would hear her response, small knocks mimicking my own. She was there. She was listening.

Our relationship wasn’t always great. Those teen years were rough. We fought over everything from the bathroom to driving the car. We isolated in our rooms, far from our shared wall, not sharing our burdens, not comforting one another.

Then something miraculous happened. When we were in college, living 1,300 miles apart, our relationship mended. Maybe it was the settling of adolescent hormones or that we finally had so much space, enough to know what we were missing. She became the person I turned to once again. Instead of a knock on a wall, it was a phone call or a trip to her university.  

I’m thankful to say that today my sister is my best friend, but maintaining our relationship, or any relationship, isn’t always easy. Family and friends see things differently from one another, disagree on issues, and don’t always understand each other’s choices. But we need each other.

Life is hard. We’re not meant to go through it alone. During His time on this earth, Jesus didn’t. He walked through life with His disciples, twelve men from different backgrounds and opinions who came together for a common goal.

These men, however, weren’t always faithful. Take Simon Peter, for example. In Matthew 16:16, he calls Jesus Messiah and the Son of the Living God. Then, six verses later, he is rebuking Jesus after He tells the disciples He will be killed. Jesus says to Peter what no one wants to hear from their friend, “Get behind me, Satan.”

It’s fair to say Jesus and His disciples’ relationships weren’t always easy, but necessary. We all need people to walk through life with, but for that to happen, we have to accept people as they are with all their blessings and all their faults.

It’s worth it, though. When life is hard and we’re feeling alone and sad, we need people to go to, and they need us. When we knock on that wall, we need someone to answer. We need to know that we are never alone.

Próximos pasos

Who can you reach out to and check in with today? Let them know they’re not alone.