"The elderly gentleman next door had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the old man crying, his neighbor's four year old son went into the old man's yard, climbed onto his lap and sat there. Later, when his mother asked him what he had said to the old gentleman, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him to cry!'"
Doesn't this anecdote just capture your spirit? Here is the innocence of a child with an unhindered heart of grace.
Job too knew friends like this (at first).
"Then they sat on the ground with him (Job) for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was." (Job 2:13)
Silence can be the wise choice of an understanding friend. Silence with loving company can salve the injured soul and caress a saddened spirit. There are times when advice or counsel are, at best, hollow, as the moment, the depth, the emotion can never be plumbed by words. Feelings can reach far deeper than words can ever dive.
Our Father in heaven too knows this. He was the first one to know it.
He too has sent His 'four year old' to sit with us. This is His Holy Spirit - our counselor and comforter (Jn 14:16).
When we feel as 'the elderly gentleman next door' did, His Holy Spirit sits on our lap, won't say a thing to us unless invited to, and even says our prayers that we can no longer form."In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." (Roms 8:26)
When words won't work for me, His Holy Spirit will.
