With Bread

August 7

A lot of us like to be surrounded by friends. We don’t enjoy being alone, perhaps because we don’t like the silence of our own thoughts. When we are with others, there are many trivial things about which we may converse, many time-wasting activities in which we may engage that will distract us from the pondering of weightier things.

Yet, in allowing ourselves to be focused on the trivial rather than on the significant matters of life, perhaps we are doing a disservice to those we count as our friends. Perhaps we owe them the use of our own ponderings as a sounding board for their deep contemplations.

Proverbs 18:24 seems to confirm this, for it says, “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” The suggestion made by this verse is that the one who simply surrounds himself with companions denies himself the closeness of the kind of friendship that more accurately resembles the familial relationship of brotherhood.

Though a companion is one with whom we eat our bread (the word literally means, ‘with bread’) the implication is that it is the bread of abundance, of good times, of shared celebration. This contrasts to the depth of friendship that is enjoyed with one who is more a brother than a friend. A brother will be beside us through not only the good times but also through the rough places; he won’t leave us alone when times are tough.