What is friendship? And what is real friendship? The basic, standard definition of “Friendship is a long-term, positive relationship that involves cooperation”, says psychologist Robert Seyfarth. It involves cooperation, a shared sense of humour and above all, some one whom one can count on, in a time of crisis.

The popular idiom goes to say “A friend in need is a friend in deed”. A friend should be someone who will always be there, to take time to listen,to help out and to care.

A friend should be some one who makes one feel good,should be able to cheer when no one else could, and should be warm, understanding and true;should be someone you trust, who will let you be you.

Well, it is easy to list out all the criteria that one expects to see in a friend;but how many do have all those qualities is the issue. Friendships made in childhood will last for a long time or for life if they don’t drift away because of the jobs or riches. This friendship comes from unconditional affection and without any inhibitions. May sometimes end up in adding them to the family by way of marriages. Friendship made during adulthood after people have settled in life, generally lasts long, because it is made between people with similar jobs, similar financial and educational and social status but open for misunderstanding and for lack of openness and lack of cooperation making it lopsided. This is selective type of friendship which people make to suit their social grades. Also they don’t want to look at each other if there is any change in the social or financial status in one or the other. They think it is below their prestige to move with people in lesser circles. So it may or may not be permanent. One example of a real people is being quoted here. One couple when they were in distress called and asked for companionship, advice, comfort from other couple. The conversation and arrangements were done by the ladies, but the person in distress was the man and comfort to be given by the other man. They made a long journey after a lot of hassle because of suddenness and did what was expected of them. After a while the person who helped died and the friend who was comforted thought that the husband was the friend and the friend’s wife was his enemy and stopped talking to the widow,without any reason or explanation, although in reality it was that widow who arranged everything for the travel,and planning. The widow forgave and forgot about that couple. What happened to all the years good friendship!!

So openness is very important to keep a friend and one never knows how and when the friendship breaks.

One might wonder how do we know who is a good friend and whom to trust. As far as human friendship is concerned it is always temporary and friable for more than one reason. So the real friend to trust is the one who is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. Because of His omnipotence, he can help in anyway that is needed. Because of His omninipresence, He is always there with you everywhere and any where and watching over you when you need help. Because of his omniscience He knows how to help. O.k, The the one with all these characters is GOD and he is not visible to help and how do we get it, one might wonder. Yes a genuine doubt, but He helps in the form of another human being, it may be one of your so called friends in your daily life or it could be a stranger. Without His instinct, even your best friend however much he or she wants to help there will be some obstacle and they cannot help. It may be an emergency in their own home, conveyance problem or ill health etc. It may be unbelievable or inconceivable but here is another example of how divine help comes from a stranger. Long time ago, I was driving for work when the roads were covered by nearly one foot deep snow and because of the subzero temperature there was a sheet of ice under the snow. The road was very hilly with steep ups and downs. The car stopped as it was rolling back instead of going on steep up. No degree of revving the engine would help. One person in the nearby house saw my plight and came out with a digging spade and cleared all the snow and ice from the road in a temp of minus 7or 8degrees celsius, and sat in the driving seat himself and drove upto the top of the hill and walked back to his house. What prompted him to come out in that situation to come out leaving his warm room and a comfortable chair other than from the Omnipresent one inducing the thought in him to go out and help a lady in distress. If we look into life’s experiences, everybody will have something in their life to fit this bill.

So if you have faith, you should trust the real friend who is ever present with you, although he is invisible, his watchful eye will be on you always. If somebody didn’t get any help(according to that individual) it means he really didn’t need any help and he asked for help when he can really do it himself with the means that are available to him. The true eternal friend is your maker himself and not the ephemeral human friend. When you really need help, you ask the Almighty and you will get it in some form or other. The success is in understanding this principle and practising it.