My friend Amy Camp once met a man while traveling in South Africa. He was in recovery, and he told her his story.

As a young man, he had moved to New York City. He came from a good family back home. But somehow he got addicted to crack cocaine. He ended up living in a crack house. He wasn't sleeping. He had become extremely paranoid. And one day he found himself standing on a sidewalk… weeping.

Amy said he's a big guy. Looks kind of tough. It was hard for her to picture him crying on a city street.

But here's what he told her: "I was sobbing and shaking, and a little boy came up to me and asked what was wrong. And I said, 'Nobody loves me. Nobody loves me. Nobody loves me.' The boy looked at me and said, 'Jesus loves you.' And it just hit me."

And somehow, the two of them started singing together: "Jesus loves me, this I know…"

"That moment changed my life," he told Amy. "I wanted more than ever to get sober. So I called my brother in Johannesburg, and he sent me a ticket home."

That little boy didn't have a program to offer. He didn't have answers. He didn't try to fix anything. He noticed a grown man crying on the sidewalk… and he stopped. And he said the truest thing he knew.

Jesus once prayed, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants." (Matthew 11:25)

Most of us walk past a lot of tears. And when we do stop, we worry we won't know what to say.

Maybe the words don't have to be profound. Maybe they only have to be true.

Prayer: Thank you, O God, for sending the right people into our lives at the right times. Use us in the same way for others. Give us eyes to notice the tears around us, the courage to stop, and simple words that heal. Amen.