A Single Yellow Heart.
I never knew the power of a single yellow heart until I met my friend Jenny.
Jenny knows the inside of the same pediatric cardiac care units that I do. She knows clinging to Jesus as your child is waiting on a heart transplant list. And she imagines and longs for the little voice crying out “Mama!” when she gets to Heaven, the same way I now do.
As I walked out Savannah’s journey, Jenny should have had every reason to stay as far away from my family as she possibly could. I could have been called a trigger to her own. She decided, instead, that we are tougher together.
Partnering with me in prayer, preparing me for what I would see and feel, Jenny walked out every step with me. From the very moment Savannah was diagnosed and I met up with her in a Starbucks with a shaky voice and a question I didn’t quite know how to ask, she never missed checking in with me weekly, sometimes multiple times. She would text and ask, “how are you ‘today?’ 💛” understanding that thoughts and feelings change rapidly when you’re facing this reality. She introduced me to medical professionals who are passionate about what they do and make children like ours important to them even on their off days. She dropped by with coffee and bakery treats, passed on her own daughter’s clothes, came over for play dates, even offered me money from her own son’s memorial fund once when I mentioned a medical bill. Sometimes Jenny just sent a single yellow heart. The same yellow heart that followed all of her other text messages. It didn’t need any words with it. I knew just what that heart meant: “I’m with you.”
Because of my beautiful friend and her yellow hearts, I understand a lot better what it means to have a battle buddy. Someone to walk into spiritual warfare with and know they’ve got your back. They’ll love your child and lift them up to the Lord as though they were their own.
I understand now how to be a battle buddy too. There are a lot of people that back away when life gets hard. They mean well. They just don’t know what to say, so they don’t say anything at all. Little do they know, that’s the most crushing thing of all. It leaves already vulnerable and grieving hearts exposed to the lies of the enemy that tell them they are alone. Nobody cares. Your feelings are too big. Your faith too messy. You’re on your own in this fight for the one you love.
Others choose to give financially and, while this is an incredible blessing, I think it’s important to ask ourselves if our giving financially is so we can tell ourselves we’ve done something to help without actually having to draw close to the one hurting.
God wants us to make others mean more to us than our own comfort. To put ourselves right in the midst of the awkward and uncomfortable to better love. The same way He did for us.
Share this post with a Mama friend today and tell her, whether you’ve been there before or not, you’re here now and you’ve got her back. 💛
