He was a scrawny little boy full of energy and always into something. I had learned this the hard way by teaching his class at church. The church organization was called Royal Rangers. The class, called Buckeroos, was for 7 and 8 year old boys. As you might imagine by the name, it carried a cowboy theme. There was never a dull moment with all these little boys. But this one particular little trouble-making rascal was always a handful until one night when he unexpectedly became My Hero.

I occasionally used puppets to get a message across to the boys and they seemed to really enjoy it. One of the puppets I used was actually a Howdy Doody puppet whose name I changed to Cowboy Bob. His clothing certainly fit the cowboy theme and it wasn't much of a stretch because these little guys had no idea who Howdy Doody was anyway.

I began with a little chatter and silly conversation between myself and Cowboy Bob as a method of getting their attention before presenting the Bible story. At one point during this 'puppet conversation' with myself, Cowboy Bob said, "What do you know about anything? You're just a dumb ole' girl!"

Since this was a room full of little boys, I thought the 'dumb ole' girl' thing would get their attention and even make them giggle a little bit. But to my surprise, a hero arose to my defense. Before I could say anything else, little Jimmy was nose to nose with my puppet shouting, "She is not! She is not!" I gotta tell you, my heart melted. My Hero! He didn't take time to consider what the other boys thought. He gave no thought to the fact that it was actually a puppet he was yelling at. His only thought was to come to my defense. What love! And at that moment I no longer thought of him as the little rascal in the class. He was indeed My Hero, my friend.

No matter who you consider to be your hero, you can be assured there is One greater. One Who is always there. Psalm 18:2 says, 'The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my Savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the strength of my salvation, and my stronghold.' Again, in Psalm 84:11 we read, 'For the LORD God is our light and protector.'

God has certainly blessed us with friends of all shapes and sizes. But even better than that, He has declared Himself to be our friend. John 15:13-14, 'Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.'

So I ask you, "Are you His friend?"