When I was reading the story of the paralysed man who was loweredthrough the roof, I was struck again by the importance of the role hisfriends played.

If his friends had not taken him to meet Jesus, and if they had not hadthe perseverance to lower him through the roof, then he would neverhave had this encounter, his sins would have remained a cripplingburden for him and his life would have been unchanged.

I am grateful for those friends of mine who have, through their wordsor kind deeds and sometimes annoying pushing, helped me through mylife, and I hope that I may be as good a friend to others aware oftheir real needs and willing to do what it takes to help them.

"Some men came to him,bringing to him a paralytic,carried by four ofthem.Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd,theymade an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it,lowered the mat the paralysed man was lying on." Mark 2vs1-4