Transcends All Barriers
Do you recall me telling you about my friend, Chief Wawa of the Yagua Tribe in Peru? Six years ago when I met him, I took a picture of him. His body was painted a bluish purple color, he wore a grass skirt, he had bones from a bushmaster snake around his neck and he wore a brightly colored headdress made from macaw feathers.
At that time, Chief Wawa told me to pass on a message to America, “We are more than pictures in a book. We laugh, we love, we cry and we pray for America.”
I returned to that part of the world recently and would you believe I was actually able to find Chief Wawa! Located off the Apayaku River in Peru, I greeted Chief Wawa and I presented him with the picture I had taken six years earlier. We are certainly both older, but one thing has remained all these years. We have carried this friendship across time and distance and our friendship has transcended the barrier of culture, race and language. The bond we have is rooted in the same love that we share for Jesus Christ.
Jesus spent much time teaching and training the disciples. At one point, in John 15:15, Jesus said:
“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
The same is true for us today. There should come a point in our walk with the Lord that we no longer follow Him simply out of duty and obligation, as a servant would his master. Instead, we follow Christ out of our love for Him, knowing that He loves us so much that He considers us as friends.
