In every part of the Earth, wherever there are living things, there are relationships, because all organisms, plant, animal or other, are dependant on one another and upon their environment. Ecology is a method of describing those relationships.

Relationships are more important to humanity than anything else. Firstly, it appears that the Creator made us so that we need complex relationships between us. Even more important, He made us so that we can have a relationship with Him. He has gone to considerable trouble to lay down the ground rules for such relationships and the whole process is described in the Bible as a 'Covenant'. It is also clear that God enjoys such relationships and gives them every possible encouragement.

The covenants began, so far as our record shows, with Noah after the Flood (Gen.8.9‑11). The concept became enlarged in the life of Abraham and his family and that great patriarch was described as a friend of God (Gen.15, Isa.41.8). We learn even more from the time of Moses when God made a special relationship with all the living descendants of Abraham's grandson Jacob (Ex.19.6). We do not know all that went on in those relationships and how God cemented the relationships by the expressions of His love, but the revelation of these friendships, recorded for our benefit, gradually unfolds, enabling us to know what God is like. From patriarch to prophet and on to John the Baptist, the wonder of God's character is shown to us.

The coming of God's Son opened a totally new chapter in the understanding of the Creator, for Jesus was the exact reflection of the glory of God, bearing "the very stamp of his nature" (Heb.1.3 RSV). Jesus went a stage further than those who had gone before, not only showing us what God is like but opening the way for His followers to enter into the kind of relationship with the Father that He enjoyed (John 17. 21-23). This was made all the more realistic because Jesus' life, in word and action described for us just what our Father really is like. It was Jesus who much encouraged His people to regard God as their Heavenly Father, which immediately brings the Everlasting Almighty Creator into the closest possible relationship. This became clear at the outset of His ministry. In Jesus' basic teaching, laid down in the Sermon on the Mount He refers to 'your Father who is in Heaven' in Matt.5.16; 5.45; 6.1; 6.4; 6.6 (twice) 6.9 (prayer); 6.14; 6.18 (twice); 6.26; 6.32; 7.11; 7.21. The Sermon on the Mount is a wonderful discovery of the Father in Heaven and to Jews who inherited a twisted view of the Old Testament via rabbis, scribes and Pharisees, it must have been a very surprising revelation. But to the vast majority of mankind, spiritually blind pagans, it must have seemed impossible. The great God of the Universe is more loving, gentle, forgiving and tender than the most wonderful father and mother that any person could imagine. This is the God who is looking for a relationship with each one of us. He knows us well and He wants us to know Him and spend time with Him.

This is a relationship that demands everything ‑ total commitment ‑ yet it is a relationship that has everything to give. But being devoted to God in no way hinders relationships with others provided other friends do not interfere with our friendship with Him. In fact our relationship with God motivates toward good friendships with others because God is love and He wants us to have strong bonds of love with others. What a challenge this is to the children of God for it should mean that they should be the most friendly people on Earth, rich in friendship and enjoying strong bonds with those who are close to them.

The relationship with God can be broken, as it was in Eden, and for the same reason. Sin cuts us off from God and also from others who love Him. This occurs when we break God's law and are disobedient to what we know He requires of us. As we look through history from the days of Adam and Eve to this present time the principle has always been the same ‑ as it was in the time of Israel "See, the Lord's hand is not to short to save, nor his ear to dull to hear, Rather, your iniquities have been barriers, between you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear" (Isa.59.1,2 NRSV). God is wonderfully patient with human weaknesses and ignorance. Our obedience is subject to our understanding, but the ethical objective is that we are obedient to the light we have and this is so vital in our relationship with a holy God. But like the prodigal, we can walk away from God, by our behaviour, and we can return, seventy times seven and still we find the Father waiting to receive us back with open arms. But as with our first parents, human nature finds obedience difficult and not everything the Lord has asked us to do is attractive. But Jesus asked us to love each other. How strange that some of His brothers and sisters fall out and leave each other. It is quite impossible to express love for fellow Christians if we turn our backs on them. Of course, we can still pray for them, but do we do so in a sympathetic, even forgiving way.

It is wonderful that the Saviour, who died for us, is also the close friend who is with us every moment of every day. Many Christians find it easier to identify with the Lord Jesus than with God because of the wonderful records of His earthly life which the Gospel writers have left to us. Those who have walked with the Lord for many years have become familiar with the way that Jesus operates in their lives as He did among men and women when He walked the roads of Galilee and Judea. He demands the same strong, upright behaviour as well as the gentle forgiveness for those who stumble.

Friendship is one of those most wonderful aspects of life on Earth. Observation of animal life provides many touching examples of strong bonds between mating pairs. Human friendship is about sharing life in its many aspects, the joys and sorrows, the times of plenty and times of frugality, the elation of success and disappointment of failure; these are the shared experiences of friends. There can be little in human experience more delightful than the development, from birth, of happy, healthy family life. The bonds between siblings reflect the relationship of parents. This is friendship and echoes the beauty of our relationship with the Heavenly Father and with our Lord Jesus.

Just as a human family should be one of love, often sacrificial love, so it is in God's family upon Earth. "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another." So said Jesus of His brethren, this is how it must be if we are part of God's family. A loving relationship is expressed practically and demonstrated in kindly actions and encouraging words. Family life is betokened by willing and generous helpfulness and by sympathetic forgiveness. Real friends are patient and gentle with each other, ready to support in time of need.

Christians also have a relationship with the rest of human kind. "God so loved the world that He sent His only son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." We too must love the world as our Father and our Saviour do ‑ love enough to die for it. But we may not love the world for its 'worldliness'. Expressions of helpfulness do not require imitation of those who are helped.

This was in some respects Israel's great failure. When they eventually came to terms with their neighbours, they decided to adopt their ways and their daughters and eventually their gods. The Christian Church had a similar history. For the first two centuries Christians slowly made their place in society and earned grudging admiration from their pagan neighbours. But the Christian faith became more popular and eventually became the official 'religion' of 'the Empire'. While the spiritual morality was being taught to the heathen, all went well but standards fell when the heathen started to dictate the ethical standards. Christians became high officials ‑ even becoming Emperor. Followers of the Carpenter of Nazareth became rich ‑ people of influence ‑ officers in the Roman army ‑ and eventually turned the tables on the Jews and became anti-Semitic. The Church itself became socially strong and materially wealthy. Ultimately the Church violently and cruelly treated any of its own brethren who refused to toe its line. Did they ever ask the questions 'Is this what Jesus would do? Is this what He wants me to do?'

What did all this do to relationships in those darkest years of

Christianity? Given the circumstances, how much better would we do?

How much better are we doing in this twenty-first century of the Christian faith? It is for us to determine, every day, as we speak to the Lord, that as a day unfolds, it will be a better one than the days that have gone before, as we relate to God, to our Saviour, to His brethren and to His world ‑ He died for all.

These relationships can be broken. Sin, in some form is the cause of relationships being broken. Sadly we do not value relationship enough.

Can we not see the logic ‑ is it not true ‑ that a relationship is more important than any reason whatsoever for breaking that relationship.

Friends, parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters in Christ, often allow a quarrel to jeopardise a relationship yet the reason for the dispute - the 'row' is not so important as that relationship itself. Love is the most important thing, it is the goal in life, and it is more important than knowledge in the Church (1 Cor.8.1; Eph.4.15).

Ponder afresh the relationship that existed between Adam and Eve as they walked their own cultivated garden; or the eight in the Ark, or Abraham and Isaac as father taught son to supervise their large 'staff'. What was the relationship between Miriam and her brother Moses; and were there no disputes between Naomi and Ruth or David and Jonathan? So we might go on through the Scriptures, perhaps discovering new aspects of these remarkable characters. How fruitful were those relationships and how much did they interfere with their relationship to God? Did they dispute who was the greatest like the twelve apostles? Or like them do we sometimes want to bring down fire from Heaven?

The nearer we come to God, the nearer we come to those around us. The further we distance ourselves from others, the more likely we are to distance ourselves from God.

DN