Most parents will do anything they can to protect and provide for their children. A story reported of a family in Florida provides a good illustration.Four children were swimming in a pond when a huge alligator began swimming toward them. A nearby neighbor began to scream, and three of the children escaped. But one boy was snorkeling and could not hear the warning.
The 11-foot, 400-pound alligator opened its jaws and fastened them partially on the boy's head. Miraculously, the snorkel mask became wedged in the alligator's mouth and prevented him from snapping his jaws shut. Wrenching free, the boy started swimming frantically toward shore.
Meanwhile, his mother heard the screaming and ran to the edge of the pond, urging her son on. The alligator was gaining on the boy when the mother waded out into the water and reached out to her son. She grabbed his arms just as the alligator grabbed his feet.
A grim tug-of-war began, with the mother holding her boy's arms in a death grip and pulling with superhuman strength. Finally, she literally tore her son out of the alligator's jaws and pulled him to shore and safety.
Several weeks later, the mother and her son were walking along the shore of the lake and came to the spot where that incredible tug-of-war had taken place. She looked down and noticed that the bad cut under her son's chin was almost healed. His leg, broken by the force of the animal's jaws, had mended. The only visible scars remaining were on her son's arms-the marks of a mother's love-where her fingernails had dug in and actually drawn blood.
Doubtlessly this mother would have been dragged to destruction herself before she would have let go of her son. She models a courage that should give us new resolve for our task of providing for and protecting our children.