Worth More Than A Thousand Words

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’ (Matthew 25:40 NIV).

My husband recently called on one of his long-time customers who had been out of work battling throat cancer. When this man described his struggles, he did not mention the pain, long days encountering chemo, loss of appetite or hair. Rather, what he said was, “What I found was that nobody in this world really cares about you. Others go on day by day concerned about themselves and their own.”

 I don’t know this man, yet this statement haunted me. I continued to contemplate how difficult it is to approach those who are deeply troubled. Ella Wheeler Wilcox writes in her famous poem, “Solitude”:

                        Rejoice, and men will seek you;

                        Grieve, and they turn and go.

                        They want full measure of all your pleasure,

                        But they do not need your woe.

 Because I can relate to the words in this poem, it caused me to search my own life. When people are hurting, such as struggling with an illness or suffering from the loss of a loved one, I often say, “I’ll pray for you.” But do I care enough to stay and offer my presence in their most desperate hour or do I leave as fast as possible because I don’t have the right words to say?

 A friend recently had to go to court to face an unpleasant situation and another friend accompanied her. She said that her friend never said a word, but his simple presence made all the difference in the world. In these times, isn’t the presence of a friend monumental and isn’t it just an illusion to assume that our words can fix everything anyway?  There is a famous saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”  Sometimes, our mere presence is worth more than that!

Michele