A Shoebox Greetings card had this message about friends: "You're the kind of friend who wouldn't laugh if we were in a fancy restaurant and I came out of the bathroom with a streamer of toilet paper on my heel." (inside the card) "O.K., you'd laugh, but you wouldn't start singing, "I know something yoooooou don't know" and make me guess till I figured it out." (1)

One of the greatest human longings and desires is to be close to someone through the bond of friendship. Friends offer us companionship. Friends offer us support and help.

Someone wrote, "A good friend or neighbor is one who watches your vacation slides all evening and never mentions that he has been there too." (2)

Another wrote, "Friends are the Bacon Bits in the Salad Bowl of Life." (3)

Jesus had a lot of disciples but Scr…