Everyone has a best friend. Mine is the best. He never lies. He never thinks of himself. He always takes care of me. I wish I could have met him.

My friend did not have the luxury of being born in a hospital. He took his first nap on a bed of hay, not cotton. But despite the brute welcoming to this world, I have been told that he did not shed one tear.

I do not know much about his childhood. One story I heard was that his parents accidentally left him behind on a journey once when he was twelve. At first, it sounded like a remake of the Home Alone movie. But in my buddy's case, he spent his separated time in a temple mingling with some priests instead of setting traps for burglars. After anxious searching, his parents found him two days later and I believe that was the only time they were upset with him throughout his life.

After a few more years passed, the inevitable time came for him to make a living. My pal decided to follow his father's profession and become a carpenter. He was the most respectable of workers and his passion for life showed vividly through his labor. But at the age of thirty, he decided to make a change. He put down the wood and began to teach.

challenging the deeply rooted beliefs and actions of people. And he took this teaching to the road.

job he could find was as head cleaner of a pigpen. Tiring of this, the young man decided that it would be better to beg his father to take him back, if only as a lowly field worker. He knew he was no longer worthy to be a son, but at least the work would be better. As the son approached home, his father saw him coming up the road and ran to embrace him. The son proclaimed his unworthiness, but his father would have nothing of it. The father was so joyful that he threw a celebration and exclaimed, "This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."

Most people cannot understand the concept of a best friend who you cannot touch or see. But every second of every day, I feel Jesus with me. He lives inside of me. He is the light of my path. He cares for my every thought, my every belief, my every action. He fills me to the point that my joy overflows.

the road, Jesus was waiting to embrace me. And when I finally did make the trek back home, the celebration he threw in my heart turned my life around.

Now, I walk everyday with my friend. I find that two thousand years later, his teachings still apply to all areas of my life. I find it amazing that the times that I am least concerned with my own needs and wants, I feel the most content in life. An example is my past problem of turning other drivers into enemies. My days remain much less bitter when I try to love and respect the man in the BMW that just cut me off or the woman in the mini-van that nearly side-swiped me.

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Approximate Word count = 1836
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)