Her name is Leah.  She is my hero.

Have you ever seen someone go through something so difficult it appears to be breaking them into tiny little pieces?  Have you watched from a distance or up close and searched for a way to save them from the pain, but found all efforts futile?  But then, in your helplessness, watched that person rise from ashes so dark and dusty that it could be nothing else but a miracle?  This is my sister.  She has seen hell…more than once…and risen…EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Her name is Leah.  She is my hero.

As a Christian, I believe that it is a sin to put people or things up on pedestals.  I have done it before and it can be so destructive.  This is not the kind of hero that I am talking about.  It is the kind of hero that moves through life in such a way that it makes you want to be better.  …that makes you want to be stronger….that forces you to your knees because you know that you will NEVER be better or stronger like that person without Jesus.

Her name is Leah.  She is my hero.

She makes me want to be better.  She makes me want to be stronger.

She moves through life in such a way that moves me in the deep places of my heart.

You see, we have quite a history…separate and together.   We grew up with a very contentious relationship.  We HATED each other.  It is humorous to both of us now, but back then it was a source of heartache for me…maybe for her too…I don’t know.  But that is all old now…she is my best friend.  She will tell me the truth.  She will fight with me.  She will still love me after the fight.  She comforts me.  She understands me.  She makes me laugh til my sides ache.  She GETS me.  If you are like me at all, sometimes it feels like there are not many people in our lives that REALLY GET us.  She does.  All the time.  I don’t know how, but she does.

Her name is Leah.  She is my hero.

She joined the Navy right out of high school.  I was so in my own world that I was totally oblivious to what she was going into….and then came Desert Storm.  She had orders to deploy….he was on the hospital ship (she is a Navy Corpsman).  It left the harbor.  Hours later it was turned around and she never ended up having to go.  But that is what began to change my heart towards her.  Suddenly I was afraid that I would never really know her.  I was afraid that she would be gone before we could become friends. I can’t tell you the number of years that went by before we actually became friends, but one day it was just there.

Her name is Leah.  She is my hero.

Dark times have chased her more times than is tolerable.  She has been betrayed in a way that no one should ever be.  Her heart has been broken into tiny, tiny little pieces.  She has been denied so many of the desires of her heart.  She has seen young men and women, broken, bleeding and destroyed come off the battlefield and helped patch them back together.  She has been in battle.  She has been changed.  She has been taken advantage of.  She has been mistreated.  But she has ALWAYS risen.  She has chosen not to give up.  She has cried out to God for healing.  She has moved in the direction HE asked of her.  She is loyal.  She is beautiful.  She is strong.  She is LOVE.

Her name is Leah.  She is my hero.

Her Name is LEAH.  She is my HERO.