A True and Faithful Friend

The most endearing character of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is Joe Gargery, the humble husband of Pip’s sister who helped raise him.  Always patient, kind, and submissive to his violent wife (who beat Pip whom she raised), he was a true friend to Pip throughout the whole novel.  When Pip left home for his “expectations” in London, he essentially abandoned Joe, thinking himself much above him after having come into money, and Pip would rarely go see Joe even when he came back to his hometown.  Joe worked for years at the forge, living a simply hardworking yet poor life, and Pip never tried to help him despite his ability to do so.  After many experiences, including seeing Joe at the funeral of Pip’s sister, Pip came to see his own failure to be a true friend to Joe.  Near the end of the book when Pip was very ill, having lost just about everything and many years after essentially deserting Joe, it was Joe that came to his rescue to nurse him back to health.  When Pip came to and realized the ever-faithful Joe was there taking care of him, he cried out, “O Joe, you break my heart! Look angry at me, Joe. Strike me, Joe. Tell me of my ingratitude. Don't be so good to me!”  Joe responded simply, “Which dear old Pip, old chap,” said Joe, “you and me was ever friends.”  No matter what Pip did to abandon his friend, Joe would never abandon him.  Joe said to Pip in the same conversation, “Ever the best of friends; ain't us, Pip?”  Pip was ashamed to answer, but Joe simply confirmed it.  Pip summed up his faithful friend in these words: “O God bless him! O God bless this gentle Christian man!”

               Thinking of the example of Joe reminds me of the words in the hymn Where Can I Turn for Peace? that says this of the Savior: “Constant he is and kind, Love without end.”  Christ never fails in His love for us; He is constant and true, always ready to take us in when we are willing to accept Him.  No matter what we have done, He is ever faithful and ever there to receive us.  He tells us, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).  It doesn’t matter what we have done; if we are willing to now follow Him and open the door so He can indeed come in and sup with us.  No matter what we do in our lives, He will always be the light and life of the word, “yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death” (Mosiah 16:9).  We can trust that Savior will not run out of life or light to share with us, no matter how far we have let our path stray from Him.  He stated in this dispensation to those seeking to follow His 

            The story of Joe also helps us see the need that we have to be the true and faithful friend that Joe was.  Joe’s power was in that his friendship and concern for Pip did not depend on Pip’s return of friendship or kindness.  He was simply unwavering in his devotion.  The Prophet Joseph Smith spoke of that kind of friendship when he wrote, “How good and glorious it has seemed unto me, to find pure and holy friends, who are faithful, just, and true, and whose hearts fail not; and whose knees are confirmed and do not falter, while they wait upon the Lord.”   That’s the kind of friend we should strive to be, to never falter in our love and faithfulness to our friends.