November 30, 2020 7:00 pm
When Jen, a theme park employee, saw Ralph collapse in tears on the ground, she rushed to help. Ralph, a young boy with autism, was sobbing because the ride he’d waited all day to enjoy had broken down. Instead of hurrying him to his feet or simply urging him to feel better, Jen got down onto the ground with Ralph, validating his feelings and allowing him the time to cry.
Jen’s actions are a beautiful example of how we can come alongside those who are grieving or suffering. The Bible tells of Job’s crippling grief after the loss of his home, his herds (his income), his health, and the simultaneous deaths of all his ten children. When his friends learned of his pain, they “set out from their homes . . . [to go] comfort him” (Job 2:11). Job sat on the ground in mourning. When they arrived, his friends sat down with him—for seven days—saying nothing because they saw the depth of his suffering.
In their humanness, Job’s friends later offered Job insensitive advice. But for the first seven days, they gave him the wordless and tender gift of presence. We may not understand someone’s grief, but we don’t need to understand in order to love them well by simply being with them.
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Hi, and welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Today's reading titled Being There was written by Kirsten Holmberg. When Jen, a theme park employee, saw Ralph collapse in tears on the ground, she rushed to help. Ralph, a young boy with autism, was sobbing because the ride he'd waited all day to enjoy had broken down. Instead of hurrying him to his feet or simply urging him to feel better, Jen got down on the ground with Ralph, validating his feelings and allowing him the time to cry.
Jen's actions are a beautiful example of how we can come alongside those who are grieving or suffering. The Bible tells of Job's crippling grief after the loss of his home, his herds, which were his income, his health, and the simultaneous death of his 10 children. When Job's friends learned of his pain, they set out from their homes to go comfort him.
Job sat on the ground in mourning. When they arrived, his friends sat down with him for seven days, saying nothing because they saw the depth of his suffering. In their humanness, Job's friends later offered Job insensitive advice, but for the first seven days, they gave him the wordless and tender gift of presents.
We may not understand someone's grief, but we don't need to understand in order to love them well by simply being with them. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Job 2, verses 11 through 13. When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuit, and Zophar the Nemethite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him. They began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then 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. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for always being with us in good times and bad and for showing us your love through the compassion of others. Help us offer that same gift of presence to others who are hurting. Help us to know when to speak and when to just remain silent. And when we speak, may we speak your words of love and healing. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-01-20 19:15:18 / 2024-01-20 19:16:48 / 2
