Psalm 136, Psalm 23

Liz Dumain

'His love endures forever' Psalm 136

There are times in our lives when it's easy to say this and times when it's much more challenging.

A friend of mine died recently. My friend had everything to live for and her death in human terms makes no sense at all. At times like this, many things that are easy to say when life is simple, become much more challenging. However they still remain true. God IS good and his love and care never change even when we don't understand.

In the week following her death, several of us found that we wanted to spend time together simply 'being'. We didn't necessarily have deep conversations, but we drew strength and comfort from simply being together. In that week I came across this from John Ortberg that made sense of what we had experienced:

'In crisis, especially in deep crisis, we may not be able to bring answers. But we can always bring presence. When Job hit his crisis, he was surrounded by his friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They went to Job to "sympathize with him." The Hebrew verb here, 'nud', refers to body movement-shaking back and forth, nodding the head. You see this sometimes when people experience trauma and go into shock, rocking themselves back and forth like a mother does with her baby. Their love is so strong, their grief is so great, that they sit next to him and take on his anguish. "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." It's worth pausing here for a moment. Imagine sitting with someone in silence for seven days. This was such a powerful act, it became part of Jewish life; To this day they speak of "sitting shiva" - literally "sitting sevens." Friends will come and sit with one who mourns over a period of a week.'

In the midst of trouble I found and gave comfort in the company of my friends - we experienced 'sitting shiva' without realizing what we were doing! We were simply 'being' with each other - letting the questions flow, supporting each other in our confusion, but most of all allowing the presence of God to flow through and around us as we spent time together.

God calls us all to be lights in the darkness and our care can show Jesus powerfully to people in times of crisis or confusion. As they 'walk through the valley of the shadow of death' (Psalm 23) they need not be alone - God walks with them and the greatest gift we can offer is our company - loving, supporting company that requires nothing from them than to simply relax in our presence and experience God's love through us. Similarly, in our own times of darkness, we need those close friends who can sit alongside us in our times of need.

Whether you are in need of someone to 'sit shiva' with you or have a friend that needs you - my prayer today is that you will know the deep peace of Christ that truly does pass understanding.