Heroes

After looking at the world on a cosmic scale, it is truly amazing to look at people. On the earth there are numbers of beautiful sights to behold in nature: the intricacy of a snowflake or a blade of grass, the grace of a deer running or the freedom of a bird gliding in the sky, there's the unsurpassed beauty of a fiery sunset on a clear evening and the majesty of the snow-peaked mountains. To go even further, think of the earth as a whole. It spins and moves in the expansive space in cosmic order with our moon and all the other planets. Our enormous planet hangs here by an invisible force in what is an even more enormous solar system... which is dwarfed by our galaxy which then becomes just a number in the depths of the galaxies beyond. Think of all of this on that scale, then think of us, people. There is nothing we have discovered in this all-embracing space that comes close to our special blend of tangible and intangible. We have bodies that are complex matter, yet in comparison are but a simple casing for the intangible soul we hold inside. These souls- both our mental decisions and our heartfelt emotions have the power to invoke physical change. It is because of them that we deem our lives worth living. And it's because of the combination of those two things that we have internal struggle. The majority of men have the God-given ability to withstand heavy emotional burden in order to carry out the task at hand. This is not to say that there are not women who can do the same, because there are. But if we look at the world as a whole, women have a much deeper grasp on the very valuable emotional side of life- without which we wouldn't be able to raise strong men to begin with. It takes both of these things to keep our society going. There are many precious relationships to observe, especially around holiday seasons, the relationship between a father and his son is one of my favorites. But there is nothing like the power of real love between a man and a woman. When the pressure comes, it is for her that a man will do whatever it takes to protect her and it's for him that a woman will sacrifice her heart, her most valuable possession, in order to give him what he needs to be that hero. At this time of year, I think in particular about our soldiers. Things aren't like they were when I was a kid. Soldiers fight these days... and they die. I think of the men on Flight 93 who sacrificed their lives to save others. I think of the countless men who have died in Iraq thinking of their wives and children. It is honor like this that inspires me to be devoted to others. It is this love that is even just a poor reflection of Christ's love for us. Sacrifice is one of the deepest manifestations of love, and it is sacrifice that makes heroes.