Friends Indeed By Michael L. Fraley (Texas)

Many Jews had come to comfort Martha and Mary after their brother’s death.   JOHN 11:19 (CEB)

I will never forget what five of my friends did for me when my wife died. Lisa died in her sleep on a Sunday morning in February after an eighteen-year battle with multiple sclerosis. Her death was sudden and unexpected. Over the next few days we planned times of public worship, celebration, and mourning at four different sites spread over 240 miles of eastern Texas. Phylis and Keith sat and talked with me at the visitation the night before the funeral. Glen came to the funeral and stayed with me during the meal afterward. The next day, Bob met us at the cemetery for Lisa’s graveside service. And then on Sunday afternoon, Steve attended the memorial service at our home church. When we read the later chapters of the book of Job, it’s easy for us to forget the beginning — how for seven days and seven nights Job’s three friends came and cried with him and sat with him without speaking. Words cannot express my gratitude for my friends’ presence with me during the hardest week of my life. I know why each of them was willing to drive more than 200 miles to be with me for an hour or two: because words could not express what they wanted to communicate to me. In the same way, God loves us more than words can say. So God came in person to show us.

TODAY'S PRAYER   Loving God, thank you for the gift of one another’s presence, through which you empower us to receive and to give. Amen.   * * *     TODAY'S READING   Job 2:11-13         THOUGHT FOR THE DAY   For whom will I be God’s hands and feet today?         PRAYER FOCUS   Steadfast friends