“Stretcher Bearers"

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one can be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. EC 4:9-12

I have often heard the above scripture in reference to a married couple or to a couple that is getting married. If we have God in our marriages we are like a cord of three strands.....strong and not easily broken.

I have often wondered why Solomon added the idea of a third cord (person) after spending four verses talking about the power of two. Was this simply an "oh by the way, three is better than two". Is that as deep as the philosophical reasoning needs to go or can we extrapolate a little more than that. After all, Solomon was a man endowed with an abundance of wisdom. He made the point of calling it a cord. A cord is something woven together, not just independent strands. While three strands are stronger than two, three woven strands are three times stronger than just three independent strands.

Is it a stretch to say that this third strand is Christ? Can it mean that a marriage (or any relationship) that is woven together with Christ will result in a stronger relationship? This reminds me of 2Cor 12:9 tells us that the power of Christ is made perfect in our weakness. Our admission that we are weak and need to be intertwined with Jesus makes his power "perfect".


I have been thinking this week that this also applies to the gift of friendship. God blesses us with great friendships with all different types of people. The more I think about that the more I think I understand it's purpose.

I have many different types of friends. Some are the serious intellectual type, some are shy, some are the life of any party, some are funny, and some are a mixture of all of that. I think the purpose is this. We have different types of friends to deal with or share different areas of our lives. Our lives are complex. We deal with different issues every single day. Some are joyous wonderful things and some are hard painful overwhelming things. That is just a fact of daily life. Sometimes the situation we are in determines which friend we go to to share that issue. The greatest blessing is having many friends to share our lives with.

We are never defenseless because we always have someone to share whatever is going on in our lives at the moment. Because we are blessed with more than one friend...we have many to share with and no one friend gets overwhelmed. Isn't that a great gift from God....a friend to go to in each situation and a God to bind us together as one?

This past weekend I went on a trip with 7 women from my church. It was a perfect example of the friendships God give us. There were 8 women with all different personalities and yet bound together in friendship and Christ's love. Throughout the weekend we were able to do things together and to do things separately. We all took time to laugh, and share, and be together. Every night you could see groups of sisters sitting around sharing their hearts and their lives. It was a time of seeing God's blessings and feeling the love and support that true friendship brings.

God continues to bless me and grow me by the wonderful people he adds to my life. I love all of you and I am so thankful to have you. I am reminded of a reference in the bible about the four men that carried their friend on a stretcher (a mat) and lowered him down to Jesus....because the man could not walk on his own. These men were “Stretcher Bearers" and that was what I call my friends and that is the way I see my friends. You are my stretcher bearers...you lift me up when I can not walk on my own....and you take me to Jesus

As we partner together to accomplish God's work on this earth, let us be ever cognizant of our need to be woven together with Jesus Christ