We're not meant to walk alone

 

He learned to stand like a fortress, calling isolation strength,
believing faith meant never leaning, never asking, never faltering.

 

“I will manage,” he said - trusting his spine more than grace,
walking forward with clenched resolve, certain God expected solitude.

 

Life did not correct him. It simply pressed harder.
Days bore weight. Nights searched his faith.

 

Joy thinned. Hope became effort.
His smile survived on discipline, not rest.

 

Hands reached for him, but he mistook them for distractions.
He forgot the words once spoken:  Love one another.

 

Until the moment came when willpower failed its duty,
when faith alone unshared, could not hold the load.

 

He broke.  Quietly.  Completely.

 

And then someone moved toward him
not instead of Christ, but because of Him.

 

A shoulder offered, a voice steady,
hands doing what hands were made to do.

 

Only then did he see: 
Jesus had been walking with him all along, but His footsteps were braided with others.

 

For He chose hands like ours, feet like ours, to carry His love across the ground.

No tot replace Him - but to reveal Him.

 

And so the man learned this truth at last: faith was never meant to be walked alone.
Christ walks with us yes, but He told us to also walk with our brothers.

 

Hilda Deavall