How do you walk with someone experiencing the very deepest kind of grief?

We are so often tempted to think we need to say something ...

something deep,

something that will comfort, will heal ...

something profoundly spiritual.

But what if the most important thing we can do is to simply show up,

and be still?

Henri Nouwen puts it best:

"The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our pain, that is the friend who comforts."

Oh God, may we be this kind of friend ...