By Chuck Warren
In 1887, an eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to a New York newspaper, The Sun, asking if there was a Santa Claus. In what has become the most reprinted editorial in the English language, Editor Francis Church replied with an editorial which included the line, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”
While that editorial answered the sweet pleadings of an eight-year-old girl, and probably brought her comfort, today’s children and adults may have a more paramount question.
Are there any heroes today?
To naked eyes and tender ears, we seem to have a nation and world full of egos, hatred, division, and animosity. Many ask, “Who are the women and men who stand up to lead, to care for downtrodden, who help us see light at the end of the dark? Do these leaders – do these heroes exists?”
Like the 1887 reply to an innocent Virginia O’Hanlon, I can answer affirmatively and with certitude, to the young Virginias who represent many of us today, throughout our nation and world, “Yes, Virginia, there are heroes.”
The heroes – like angels – are all around us.
They are the single parent, who works tirelessly to provide for her children and may also be taking care of elderly parents.
They are the parents – married and divorce – who work to protect and provide for their children.
They are the parent who takes extra shifts or second jobs to keep up with inflation or provide that tutoring or extracurricular activity so their children can thrive and prosper.
They are the hundreds of Iranian protestors who have been murdered and hundreds more sentenced to death who have stood up for freedom for their loved ones, countrymen and themselves.
They are doctors who work tirelessly to heal people they don’t know.
They are first responders who rush into harm’s way to protect and save those in need.
They are women and men who work silently to serve in their churches, neighborhoods, schools, and community. They give their time and treasure to make their community a little better then when they found it.
They are the brave men and women in Ukraine fighting to preserve their freedom from a power-hungry regime. You find them in their brave spouses and families who have been uprooted but summon all their strength and faith for some sense of normalcy for their young children.
They are people like Boy Scout Jonathan Werner who raised over $11,000 to give Christmas presents to foster care and domestic violence shelter children.
They are the stranger who handed a 12-year old refugee fleeing former Yugoslavia and her older sister an envelope with $100 that kept them fed for weeks.
This list can go on. It includes our brave men and women in the military, those who serve the homeless, the teacher who spends extra time helping a struggling student conquer their learning hiccup, those researchers who focus solely on finding cures to diseases that plague so many. Because many aren’t listed, doesn’t mean there aren’t millions of heroes standing by you daily.
Open your eyes. Look around, and you will see white knights everywhere who act for one simple reason: their love for their neighbor and family.
For Christians, this time of year we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Some, however, forget the heroic efforts of his young mother, Mary. She probably wished to have a mother, or an aunt near her through labor. For Christ’s foster father Joseph, who silently and solemnly stayed by her side. He selflessly provided inexperienced assistance and brought forth and helped raise a child that changed the world.
We sing Christmas hymns of angels and shepherds and of Magi from a faraway land. They provide the shock and awe, the special effects if you will, of the story, but it all started with the heroic, silent efforts of a young mother and her kind and tender husband. Doing the things that get little recognition but make the world function with kindness and tender strength.
They provide the example of millions of heroes around us. Serving, sacrificing, giving and loving without “Time” magazine recognition. They are there if you have the humility to be aware, eyes to see and openness to recognize it.
So yes, Virginia, there are heroes. At this Christmas notice them. Pray for them. Thank them, because they are the ones who will pull us through these angry and divisive times.