ON THE VANGUARD

SO CLOSE
“Enoch walked with God, and then he wasn’t there, because God took him.”
Genesis 5:24

Being single, I find myself in different seasons joining on-line dating sites. It isn’t so much that I expect to find someone as much as it is that I am wanting to converse with people like me. There is a bond that comes when someone understands your situation because they themselves are in it. But I will say if it lends itself to a date I may take it, yet one must filter through many wrongs to find that right person on-line. With all that said, I find myself some nights in a chat room, having conversations with all sorts of people around my age. It never fails, though, that every conversation makes its way toward what people desire in a mate. And the number one answer is a best friend. Having been married and now divorced, I can agree. The woman I married, although great in many ways, was never my best friend.
Maybe we didn’t date long enough or didn’t have enough trust built up both before and during the marriage, but regardless, we were never each other’s best friend. We were roommates with benefits it felt like so many days. As I find myself now with the option and fear of dating again, I have come to realize that I too want to marry my best friend. I want someone I can click with, bond with, trust, be myself around, and be encouraged to change but not forced. When I think back to my childhood, my best friend accepted me as I was. We didn’t agree on everything, but we didn’t try to change each other also.
Perhaps I am getting off track. The point I am trying to make is that I desire in a spouse a closeness. Now there are other things also, maybe more shallow things like a preference of hair and eye color, height, background and future goals, but who am I to put limits on God? The plain and simple fact is I want her to love God more than she loves me, yet still be my best friend. I don’t want growing old with her to feel like a burden.
But it seems like Adonai also desires a closeness with us. When I read about Enoch in the Bible, I read that he walked with God and then was no more. He was best friends with God. The two didn’t have some casual relationship where they just met once a month to catch up over dinner and then be on their ways. No. When I read this I think of a tight unit. Enoch ‘walked’ with God. Enoch HALAK with God, if we look at it in the Hebrew. His whole manner of life brought glory to his maker. The two were so close that nothing could separate their bond. Is this not an illustration of the best friend and marriage image God desires and should have with us. Be it in marriage, or more importantly in relationship with God, I long for closeness.
My prayer for myself is this, that God would be my best friend. Not because I want to escape death, but because I want to make Him my everything and walk with Him, and give Him the honor He deserves. I want to be so close with God.