BY “HERO” I DON’T MEAN JESUS.
I’m talking about people with skin. Bones, too. You can see their breath when the cold wind blows.
This week I had to help someone do a hard thing. I can’t tell you what it is. Family and close friends know what I’m talking about.
When the day was done, I began thinking about heroes. People who come to our rescue.
I have good friends. Many of them would have helped me do this thing if I had asked. In this case, though, they probably felt it would have been an intrusion to volunteer.
But there are heroes who don’t need to be called. And they would never ask if they could help us. They just come.
- We don’t need to ask them to come.
- And they don’t need to ask us if they can come.
My children are grown and gone from my home, living busy lives full of work and friends and dogs and grad-school homework, and all the stuff we grownups have to do.
It took a full day this week to do what had to be done. An hour’s drive each way.
I looked around the car, from my vantage point in the back seat.
My son drove. He had been up at least as late as 2 in the morning before this drive.
My daughter sat in the front beside him, going over her notes for what lay ahead.
My wife sat in the back with me, as I helped her rehearse the words she needed to speak.
There we were. My family. Wife. Daughter. Son.
We are the heroes for each other.
That’s what I found myself thinking about that night after the doing of the deed.
We have each faced tough times. When the times were toughest, we were all there.
Friends are wonderful. They are often our heroes.
But it has been my experience that when everyone else has left…or never came in the first place…I find a relative nearby. First to come. Last to leave.
Family was one of God’s best ideas, I think.
“Don’t you see that children are God’s best gift?
the fruit of the womb his generous legacy?
Oh, how blessed are you parents,
with your quivers full of children!
Your enemies don’t stand a chance against you.”
Psalm 127:3-5
I know this isn’t always the case. Many families are disoriented.
They don’t want to be. I’m convinced of that. They want to be their brother’s hero.
I wonder if that’s how we get reoriented. We know we’ve got our heads on straight when we become, once again, the hero.
Random book winner this week
Dale Sanford.
I give away one free book a week to a randomly selected subscriber to my free blog and quarterly newsletter.
Dale is random this week.
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