I don't know if you've ever made friends with someone who, despite all appearances at the outset, brought out the best in you. I have, and I'm much the richer for it.
Neil Gaiman's Amazon show Good Omens revolves around the improbable friendship of renegade angel Aziraphale and retired demon Crowley. Together, they try to hide the archangel Gabriel, who has turned up naked and with irritatingly patchy memory gaps.
Based on a book by Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, this funny, heart-warming, and at times uncomfortable series continues to ask us viewers to look at our own prejudices and ask ourselves uncomfortable questions about right and wrong.
Pratchett was a writer who raised all kinds of questions about social injustice and religious hypocrisy through his creative writing, and Gaiman certainly continues this legacy.
Good friendships create safe spaces for good discussions. From introducing a new favourite food to asking big questions about life and death, good friendships help expand our view of the world. Crowley and Aziraphale, deeply loyal in their friendship, explore questions of love, death, and happiness, as well as what colour looks best on a Bentley.
Forged in the most unlikely circumstances, theirs is a friendship that endures through the ages, through thick and thin, and through a series of fascinating and farcical turns.
Friendships like this are precious. Deeply loyal, honest, and challenging. We all need friendships that ask us to examine our faith, to question assumptions, and think; friendships that are solid enough to allow us to be real with each other, explore tough questions, and walk through life's twists and turns.
As a Christian, I've found these friendships have helped me to grow in my confidence in God, and become a better Christian. What do I mean by this? I've learnt to 'love my neighbour' better, by knowing them, and growing with them.
I've had to question my faith, which has made it stronger and richer. And I've found God to be more reliable and wonderful than I had dared imagine.
Rev Jo Trickey is Church Advocate at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC).
