As she tried to soothe her gums with her fingers, screaming in pain, I still had to finish giving her a bath, and do the whole night-time routine before she could take some pain medication and fall asleep. I kept reassuring her that after her bath and medication, she would feel better and fall soundly asleep. Mind you, she is 18 months old and probably had no interest in (or idea about) the words coming out of my mouth. I kept wanting her to hold on just a little while longer, knowing she would be fine soon, but she just wanted the pain to go away immediately. 

As a mother, seeing your child in pain is one of the hardest things. For an 18 month old toddler, there is no “let me just try and suck it up, the pain will go away” way of thinking. In fact,  all they are thinking is, “I am in pain and I want it to go away now.”  In these moments, I think about how that childish mindset is often our mentality when facing trials in our lives. We become like little children who don’t know that trials are temporary and good for them. Trials often cause us to become stronger, having learned something from them or accomplished something through them. We go through life thinking that trials should not be a part of life and each time we come to a bump in the road, we think “This is the end” or “This is the last straw”. Yes, we can be that dramatic. 

All our trials and all our pain and suffering is temporary, and there is no way to prevent these things from happening in our lives on this side of heaven. What matters is how we handle our trials. We can wail and scream or completely retreat from what is happening to us, but that won’t help. It may even worsen our situation, leaving us asunder from the lesson to be learned. Most mothers wish that our little ones would know and understand our murmurings of, “It’s okay, you’re safe with mommy. I know you feel like your teething woes are the end of life as you know it. Mommy can relieve the pain with some teething powder; you can fall asleep and the pain will go away for a while. You need to go through this so that you will have a full set of teeth and be able to eat yummy, nutritious food and grow up to be strong and healthy; it’s all part of the plan.” However, the poor child doesn’t know this; he or she is not mature enough to understand.

So it is with us in this life we have been given. [eltdf_blockquote text=”When trials come, let us look to our heavenly Father, our Lord Jesus Christ who says in Matt 11:28, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” James reminds us to “count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” (James 1:2-5)” title_tag=”h2″ width=””]. These words are our very own “You need to go through this. Soon enough it will be over and you will have learned or accomplished something, with God as your guide, strength and comfort.  It’s all part of the plan.” But we cannot see this unless we know who our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, is. Like little children, we need to grow in our spiritual maturity to understand and put our faith into action. We cannot do this apart from the Word of God, because that’s how we know who He is — through His Word. We cannot know His Word without the Holy Spirit, and we cannot have the Holy Spirit without a repentant heart drawn by Christ by His grace and by faith in Him through His word. For then, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” (James 1:12)

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These stories often portray the heroes as individuals with needs, weaknesses, and even passions, like our own, who choose to set them aside, accepting the life of loneliness and secrecy to protect those they love and a city in need. In their fight for justice, these brave heroes turn into cape & spandex wearing vigilantes, answering the cries of those victimized by crime and the ill will of others. These heroes always have a rival – an enemy usually written in to create tension- a formidable nemesis set on finding and exploiting their every weakness and seeing to their doom. While some rivals succeed in wounding the heroes and sometimes even defeating them, the heroes never let up, coming back again and again. We know these type of stories well.

[eltdf_blockquote text=”There is yet another story about a hero; this hero won the victory 2000+ years ago. He was ready to execute a plan put in place before the very foundation of the earth was laid and it was in His hands that His Father’s will prospered. Unlike the fictional heroes who save men from the ramifications of crime, He was concerned with giving men life and saving them from the ramifications of sin.” title_tag=”h2″ width=””]

While He wouldn’t be known for catch phrases like “cowabunga”, tit bits like “with great power comes great responsibility” or the succinct “Hulk, smash”, He is known for disarming our enemy, in one instance, by quoting verses from the Bible. His bankable deliveries include the true-to-the-core “it is written that man shall not live on bread alone” statement, the comforting “come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”, the cautionary “repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand” and the straightforward “I am the way, the truth, and the life…”. These words were not the ravings of a mad man but of a man who was and is God. His story stands out because it is true. His story points us to our very deliverance. You can literally hang all your hope on His words because when the comic books are closed and the cameras have stopped rolling, sin will still be raging, killing you and everyone around you. If you desire to survive this war, take heed, repent and place all your faith in the Son of man, Christ the Savior. He is the complete hero before whom sin, death and the devil didn’t stand a chance. How much more crime? Or injustice? Or pain?

So the next time you think of the “fastest man alive”, the “dark knight” or the alien from Krypton, think also of the New Adam, the Ancient of Days. Beloveds, we don’t need another hero for in Jesus the Christ, we have all we need.

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