We All Need a Hero

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and they rescue us from all different kinds of things.  Nearly six months ago, a tiny, premature, drug-addicted baby was placed into the foster system and needed a hero.  My son and daughter-in-law stepped up to meet the challenge.  Within about an hour, their family dynamics, work life, monthly bills, and sleep habits changed drastically!  To this expressionless, helpless one with partially transparent skin, whose weight has now more than tripled since that first day and whose smile and personality have begun to develop, my kids are true heroes.  And as they prepare to return this child to the biological parents soon, they are also my heroes.  God has called them to this wonderful ministry of love called foster parenting; but it isn’t something he has called all of us to.  Out of six foster placements in their home (so far), this baby is the fourth who didn’t get to stay forever.  This kind of heroism is not for the faint of heart.

We all have real needs as well as felt needs.  They differ as much as we differ from each other, and the complexity of our needs grows as we reach adulthood.  Most of us are looking for someone or something to step up and be our hero to help meet or alleviate some of these needs.  People talk about historical heroes, military heroes, superheroes, and other types of heroes.  But the greatest hero has already arrived on the scene in the person of Jesus Christ:

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!”                                                        Philippians 2:6-8

When God came to earth in the form of his Son, Jesus, and died on a cross while bearing the full weight of the sins of all of mankind, he rescued us all as no one else could.  Romans 5:8 tells us that Christ did this “while we were still sinners”.  In other words, he became our hero before we even knew we needed one.  Much like the baby placed in my kids’ home, we have all been given the opportunity, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, to be placed into the kingdom of God.  This baby was asked to trust new parents after being temporarily betrayed by biological parents; and we are asked to trust God regardless of all the untrustworthy people we may have encountered in our lives.  He is the only hero who can truly rescue us and meet all of our needs beyond our expectations and wildest dreams.

Babies take for granted the care of loving parents, and they won’t have any memories in the future of the first part of their lives.  Before they even know what they need, someone is their hero.  May we never take for granted the rescue that God’s love provided for each of us through the gift of his Son, and may we seek to follow Jesus’ example by becoming servants to those around us who are all looking for a hero – whether they know it or not.