Heroes

After watching the movie "October Skies" for about the umpteenth time tonight, I noticed something that really struck me differently than ever before.

Homer's Dad was giving him a hard time about meeting Dr. Von Braun and not knowing that he had met his hero. It was then that Homer told his Dad that while they didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things, that he did want to be the kind of man his father was and that Dr. Von Braun was not his hero.

It took a while as he was walking away for his father to realize just what Homer had said.

How often do the people who really stand heroic in our eyes truly come to know just what an impact they have had in your day to day existence?

Were it not for so many people who have influenced the course and direction of my life in very specific ways at certain points in my life, I would be a very different person than I am now.

Without the gentle push from family, friends, and sometimes, from total strangers, whom would I have become?

Just as Homer's father didn't realize the impact that he had on his son all through his life, most of our heroes never get the honor and privilege of knowing just how much they have shaped us and molded our life into something which we, and hopefully they, could be proud.

It isn't often in our lives that we have our "Academy Award Speech" where we can truly thank those who make up the difference between what we start out as and the final and hopefully polished product. While all of the names aren't always known, the actions that change our course and move us to be more than just the sum of our parts deserves at least a passing thanks and recognition.

It is to those who help us guide our lives away from danger and toward something safer or help us achieve success in a subject that had been our nemesis, or to impel us to seek for a needed change that was so frightening to us that without their guiding hand we would have simply given up that we owe our debt of gratitude.

It goes without saying all too often that we are thankful for the help we have received, but that we forget to utter the words. Not only to mankind do we owe thanks, but to our God who granted us the opportunity that we have to make from our life something better than just a pile of clay.

How often I fall short in my reminder that the ultimate in hero worship is not to a mortal construct or ideal but to a Heavenly template that brings divinity and dignity to the process of emulation.

Without that key ingredient, we cannot ever be more than just a good person. What we lack in our lives is the spark of divine that turns us from hero seekers to willing participants in worshipping Him whose right it is to receive our worship, our love and our full devotion.

While God the Father and Jesus Christ will not cease to exist if we refuse to perform our duty toward them, we will. Of this I am firmly convinced. Anything we do in this mortal circumstance is amplified by our relationship and our reverence for God. Without that reverence, we are merely a hollow form which bears only a shallow and fragile use.

But add that worship of the true Heroes of our lives, God the Father and Jesus Christ, and that worship takes on all new meaning. These are heroes that DO NOT falter. They will never disappoint nor will they ever forget us because of ego and fame. Those are characteristics that they simply do not possess. For they transcend the mortal and are divine in character, purpose and intent. They don't have a hidden agenda nor do they place unreasonable demands upon us for the opportunity to be blessed by their favor.

I remember reading in the Bible where it speaks of the Lord having us engraven upon his hands and before Him always.

Of course.

On the very hands and feet and side of my Hero are the marks of love he bears for filling that sacred role as the one who is truly Mighty to save. He won't ever let me down. He won't ever forget me, even when there are times that I have forgotten Him. And He will reach out to me to remind me tenderly that He is calling to me to come back to His fold when I have lost my way.

While we need a mark in mortality to begin our quest for being better than ourselves, there comes a point at which we must surely realize that mortality isn't our goal and that we must aim higher for not only our goals but for our Hero.

I am thankful that there is more than just the self-absorbed preening of a mortal hero who all too soon forgets who it was that helped him fill the role of hero to start the ball rolling. I am thankful that my Hero is more than just a mere idol of the moment and instead is someone who knows no bounds in his kindness and love.

Without the love that is freely offered to us from Our Father and Jesus Christ, we would have a pretty sad circumstance. I am thankful that the One to whom all reverence belongs is more than just a momentary hero.

Our Father and His Son are heroic through all time and eternity.