Last week, my one-year-old son was cutting three of his molars. He felt miserable! One night I was trying to put him down, but he was having a hard time falling asleep because his teeth hurt, and the medicine hadn’t kicked in yet. I lay down with him on the floor, and he started to relax. He kept opening his eyes to make sure I was still there. He never said anything, and neither did I. There was nothing I could say to take the pain away, but he was comforted knowing that I was there with him.
There is something very comforting about the presence of loved ones, even if words are not spoken. When a loved one dies, there are no words that can be said, but just the presence of others is comforting. Over 25,000 people came out to the memorial service in Tucson this week, not to offer words of wisdom, but to show their support through their presence.
Maybe it’s because I’m a guy who is always busy doing something, but it can feel odd and uncomfortable to just sit there. I feel like I’m not “doing anything”. But I have learned that sitting in silent support is sometimes the best thing I could do. There is a part of the story of Job that is often missed. When Job’s three friends came to see him, the first thing they did was “they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.” (Job 2:13). After this is when the three friends opened their mouths, and it didn’t go so well! This story reminds me that sometimes my silent support can be the most helpful thing I can do and can be more eloquent than any speech or advice I could give.
Chad Hess
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