The Little Gold Trinket

Somewhere today, around the neck of someone special to me, there hangs a little gold trinket. This small gold coin bears that image of a large man carrying a small child on his back, but for me its meaning goes much deeper than you’d imagine at first glance. He is the protector of the traveler and the sailor and children. “Whoever shall behold his image shall not faint or fall on that day.”
The story goes like this. There was a very large, strong man who carried a small child across a river on his back. The child was very small, but when he climbed onto the man’s back, he was amazingly heavy. As if the man had the weight of the world on his back. That child was Christ and the man was St. Christopher.
I didn’t expect to give it to him. I hadn’t even thought about buying it really. It just came over me one day that he needed it and I had to be the one to give it to him. I didn’t understand it at the time, but there was a voice in my heart that whispered “you must do this”. The someone around whose neck the metal hangs was my St. Christopher. He picked me up and carried me across rough waters. He took the weight of my world onto his shoulders and never expected anything in return.
He is a traveler who came into my life for a brief moment to save me from myself and then went on his way. He is my angel. He was the answer to my prayers when I didn’t think that anyone was listening. He has done his duty and now moves on while I stand here, looking back, holding on to the memory of the journey we took together. Although it was a brief one, it had more of an impact on me than many of the long tedious roads I have followed.
I don’t think he realizes what a huge role he has played in helping me to become the person I am, or at least guiding me to understand the person that I’m trying to be. I don’t think he understands the significance of that gift, or the meaning behind it. I gave it to him to keep him safe and protect him as he carries on his journey; this he knows, but its meaning to me is wholly different. To him, I’m sure it is not much more than the little gold trinket given in a time of loss and fear and uncertainty. To me it is a reminder of how he saved me.