Comfort each other.
—1 Thessalonians 5:11
Job’s friends (?) show us how to respond to someone who’s going through a tough time.
And then, they show us how not to.
They showed up to comfort Job and sat with him for a long time without saying a word. So far, so good. But then they started pontificating with words that hurt rather than heal. Job called them “miserable comforters” (Jb 16:2).
Don’t resist showing up on the grounds that you don’t know what to say. Silent vigils in a hospital room or surgical waiting area mean a lot. So does signing the register at a memorial service.
A preschool child climbed onto the lap of a neighbor who had recently lost his wife. The child’s mother asked her what she had said to him. “I didn’t say anything,” she said. “I just helped him cry.”
Help someone cry.