1 Maccabees 12:1-5: in context

Jonathan, leading the Jewish nation, sees that the time is favorable, and he takes an initiative of peace rather than war. He chooses men and sends them to Rome to confirm and renew the friendship the Jews had held with them, and he sends similar letters to the Spartans and to other places. His messengers ask to renew the friendship and the alliance, as in former time. Jonathan takes deliberate steps to maintain and refresh old bonds, reaching out to renew friendships that had grown distant, keeping alive the relationships that supported his people.

There is a quiet wisdom in Jonathan's initiative worth noticing: he takes deliberate steps to renew and maintain friendships. He does not wait for the bonds to lapse or assume they will keep themselves; he sends messengers to renew the friendship as in former time, actively tending relationships that had grown distant, refreshing alliances that might otherwise have faded. He understood that friendships and bonds need tending, that they are renewed and maintained by deliberate effort, and he gave that effort. This speaks to how we tend our own relationships. Friendships and bonds, left untended, tend to fade. We drift from friends, let relationships lapse, assume that the bonds will hold themselves without effort, and then find, after years of neglect, that they have quietly dissolved. Jonathan's example commends a different practice: to take deliberate initiative to maintain and renew our friendships, to reach out, to keep the bonds alive, to refresh relationships that have grown distant rather than letting them fade. Do not forsake your friend, the proverb says; and a friend loves at all times, which means through the seasons when it would be easy to drift. Relationships are worth the deliberate effort of tending. This is a small but real part of a well-lived life. Two are better than one, the Preacher says, for they have a good reward for their labor; if one falls, the other will lift him up. The friendships and bonds that support and strengthen us are worth maintaining, and they are maintained not by assumption but by effort, by the deliberate reaching out that Jonathan modeled. This calls us to tend our own relationships with such care. Are there friendships we have let lapse, bonds grown distant through neglect, relationships we have assumed would hold themselves? Jonathan's initiative to renew the friendship as in former time invites us to take deliberate steps to maintain and refresh the bonds that matter, reaching out to keep alive the friendships that support us, rather than letting them quietly fade through neglect.

Have I let friendships lapse and bonds grow distant through neglect, assuming that relationships will hold themselves without effort, and can Jonathan's initiative to renew the friendship as in former time call me to tend my relationships deliberately, reaching out to maintain and refresh the bonds that support and strengthen me rather than letting them quietly fade?