The Guardian

reassure him that things were only as bad a we let them be. All it took was faith and the belief that everything happened for a reason. It was, however, not ours to question that reason, only to accept it as it was and to do the best with what we had. Only that faith and our strength would help us change the way things were.
    The young man listened intently, trying hard he wanted so badly to find someone that he could trust and depend on.
    They had become close, sincere friends. They would spend long nights talking and sharing their thoughts and dreams. It was probably the single best time in the young man’s life. Joshua would become the one and only person that he would ever trust.
    As all things begin, they also must end. Joshua had reached the age where he was no longer eligible to be cared for by the state, no families had wanted him and quiet frankly he was ready to get out of the system and start a life of his own.
    Joshua had read and studied everything he could get his hands for life as a man of the cloth. He was not sure exactly which religion that would be; he just knew that he would join a clergy of some sort. He was a catholic. They told him that they knew this because his father although unknown and his mother, a catholic, had been killed when he was very young. He had been wearing a St. Christopher’s medal. Joshua had never known where the medal came from. He presumed from the mother he never knew, but he never took it off from around his neck.
    Rumors spread quite quickly in a foster home. It was no surprise to the young man when Joshua came to him to tell him he was leaving. He already knew yet he was still not prepared.
    Joshua was to leave very early the following morning. He sat with the young man through the night. He tried assuring him that he too would one day be free of the system that held him. That he too would survive to do good on his own one day. He encouraged him to keep the faith, as he had told him, keeping his bible with him. The one Joshua had given him. He would keep it with him until his dieing day. It was then that he would be free to live his life as he saw fit. To do whatever good he could. It was this information and more over the years that Joshua had imparted on the young man that gave him the strength to persevere and make it through to the end.
    Right before he left his side, Joshua took the St. Christopher’s medal off from around his neck. The young man knew how Joshua felt about that medal. He also knew that Joshua had never ever taken it off for any reason.
    “Here” he said to the young boy. “I want you to have this.”
    The young boy just looked with surprise in his teary eyes. He was amazed as his heart beat so hard and fast he could feel it pounding against the walls of his chest.
    “What are you doing, you can’t do that? What will you do?”
    “It’s okay my friend. This medal has brought me through many times of fear and hardship, it’s time to share it and give someone else the same thing that it has given me.” Joshua said. He leaned over and placed the chain around the young boy’s neck.
    “It’s a St. Christopher’s medal. According to the story, he was a powerfully built man who wandered the world searching for adventure. He had came upon a stream where a hermit lived, guiding others to safe places to cross. The hermit instructed the traveler in the truth of God and the traveler soon took the hermits place. Then, instead of guiding them as the hermit had, he carried them across on his strong shoulders.
    One day a child had come and as he carried him across, the child’s weight almost crushed him. Once on the other side the child revealed himself as Christ and explained that he weighed so much because he carried the weight of the world upon himself. He then baptized the traveler with water from the stream. He was then the Saint of things related to travel and people who carry things. This will protect you in your travels through life and protect you from what ever burdens you carry.”
    The young boy didn’t know what to say, so he cried and hugged Joshua tightly. “I’m gonna miss you Joshua, you’re my only friend.” He sobbed.
    “You will always be my friend” and placing the young man’s hand on his heart, “you will always be right here.”
    After Joshua had left, the young boy lay in his bed. He cried softly to himself, his hand tightly holding the medal that his dear friend had given him.
    He did not know it at the time, but