I have known a few warriors in my lifetime. People of great strength, courage, endurance and perseverance. They have been prayer warriors, parent warriors, care-taking warriors, just to name a few.
The other day at the park I realized that my 2 year old granddaughter, Violet, is a warrior as well. Decked out in her frilly, lacy princess dress, we made our trek through the desert to the park. She scaled every hill, and ran down every slope, dodging the rocks, boulders and snake holes. By the time we made it to the grassy field of the park, she ran up to my side and pulled on my shirt. "carry me" she said, in a soft voice. She was just getting over being sick and she had lost her steam. I picked her up and she laid her head on my shoulder and wrapped her tiny arms and legs around me. She wanted the comfort of being held.
Her vision of the swings revitalized her energy and she scampered off chanting, "push me Grandma, push me". These were the little kids swings. Nice little safe seats to sit in. But big brother called from across the way, saying to join her on the BIG kids swings. She wanted to be just like him. She is very brave and so she ran off to join big brother. I pushed her going higher and higher at her pleas. I glanced away for just a split second and her butt slid off the seat and she was lying sprawled out on the ground. She cried.... hard, heart breaking tears. "Hold me Grandma". And so I did. I picked her up and comforted her. "Let's try the slide instead", I suggested, and placed her on the ground. She wiped her tears, took one look at the swing and said, "No, I'm doing the swings again." She was a warrior. She had been beat. Her fear had come true, but she was climbing back on to face that fear again.
I have a dear childhood friend, who spends her days beside her son who had a brain tumor removed. She fights for him every day, encouraging him to relearn all the things he once knew. She prays over him and with him. She is strong. When faced with the heartbreak and fear, she rallies. Her life was interrupted with tragedy. When she should be going to her son's baseball games, she is teaching him the word "ball". She is a warrior.
Another sweet friend has not held her son in her arms for 20 years. She lives five thousand miles away. He is serving a life sentence in prison, a victim of wrongful conviction. She longs to have the simple things with him. A walk down a beach, a drive along the countryside, a simple dinner at the kitchen table. She is getting older, and the court system moves at a snails pace. On her knees she prays for his freedom, she prays she will see him, she prays God's grace and protection. She is a warrior.
A real warrior never really feels like a warrior. There are times when they feel weak. Moments when they feel the fear rise up in them. Days where they simply want to be held. In these moments of brokenness they wonder why they are weak. They wonder why their faith is not stronger. But this is exactly how God created us. That we would get to the bottom of our own strength and long to be in arms of our Father. God makes us needy that we might find him generous. He allows us to feel too weak to handle the situations we are faced with, so that we might find joy in his attributes, and those provisions are most clearly seen through the lens of necessity.
When life knocks us down, we find comfort in the hand that reaches down to help us up. There is comfort in the hug that comes after a hard day. Comfort in an embrace when we are filled with grief. Comfort in having someone to hold our hand when the doctor gives us the bad news. My granddaughter, a child of two years old, knows this. She is not shy about asking to be held. She needs this, and she embraces her neediness. She knows Grandma's arms are open for her. Arms to comfort her, soothe her and strengthen her. And when she is older, and Grandma cant fix it, I hope she too runs to the arms of her heavenly Father. Our God holds all things together, the stars in the sky, the clouds and all the things of the earth. If He can hold these things, He can hold you. Colossians 1:17 "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."