What Do You Say?

   There are often times in life when we do not know what to say. We desire to offer comfort and impart wisdom to those we care about. We feel deeply about their dilemnas, but cannot find words to express those feelings. Our sympathy, empathy, and emotions are too deep to draw from the word well. Friends lose a twenty-three year old son to a freak accident and their hearts are broken. A co-worker's daughter is faced with a life-threatening illness, has surgery to solve the problem, is told that the problem is solved, but she finds out a few weeks later that the problem is not solved. Her daughter is still facing blindness and death. A fellow teacher in my hall calls his wife as he does every day at lunch, but this time there is no answer. He rushes home to find her incapacitated by an excuriating headache. He offers her what aid he can and returns to school. He checks on her a short time later and receives no response. He flies home to find her unresponsive. An ambulance is called and his wife is rushed to the hospital.. She is airlifted by helicopter to Vanderbilt Medical Center to undergo emergency surgery and has continued to be unresponsive.
    Parents, co-worker and fellow teacher's worlds have been jolted with a cataclysmic shift. Nothing is the same as it was and never again will be. What do you say? I am not omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, nor adequate, but I know One who is. I may not know exactly what to say to those who need hope and comfort, but He does. He is the only one I know who has all the answers, all the strength, all the grace, and sufficiency needed for each situation. He knows how to meet each need and He alone can do what no one else can do.
   What do I say to each of them? I say I am sorry and I pray. I entrust each of them to God who hears and answers prayer. I trust God to do and say to their hearts and in their situations all that I cannot.