Jennifer Stultz

We hear a lot about heroes these days. Accomplished athletes are admired as idols for throwing around a ball, while actors in blockbuster movies portray individuals who can fly and use their incredible powers to save the universe. However, in the real world, it’s encouraging to know there are humble and hardly noticed genuine heroes all around us. Without a desire to be praised or even recognized, there are selfless good Samaritans who are willing to sacrifice their lives so that others can live, a testament to John 15:13. The following story is an example of these heavenly secret agents.

Collateral damage is a term often heard and used in a number of different contexts. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary offers the definition “deaths of and injuries to civilians, i.e., people not in the armed forces, or damage to buildings that are not to connected to the military during a war.” It then adds a cogent and sobering thought: “People say ‘collateral damage’ to avoid saying ‘innocent people being killed.’”

As the time drew near for Jesus to leave the “sheep of another fold”(1) he was visiting, he spoke to the twelve disciples(2) he had chosen to lead his Church among them in the new world, and asked them “What is it that ye desire of me, after that I am gone to the Father?”(2)