My White Christmas.

Okay. I bought into the knight-in-shining armor thing.

If you know me, you probably just gasped in horror because you know I am usually quite the feminist.

It’s okay. Let me explain.

I was home for Christmas a couple weeks ago, and it snowed. (!!!) It was actually a pretty big deal to me because I had been just aching for snow for what felt like years. It snows in Georgia, but nothing substantial enough to stick to the ground or, more importantly, go sledding in. I had started praying in November that it would snow in Missouri while I was there. So I was crazy excited when it started snowing Christmas Eve.

My family always celebrates Christmas Eve at my aunt’s house. Unfortunately this year I chose to use our GPS to guide us to her house instead of relying on my instincts or following my dad and sister there. Her house is on a hill and instead of approaching her house from the top of the street going down, we came in from the bottom. I hadn’t driven in serious snow in over four years so I was being extra cautious. Unfortunately that meant that once I started going up the hill I wasn’t going fast enough to have the momentum I needed to get us all the way up the hill. The tires started spinning over the snow, and the car got stuck almost sideways in the street (it was either that or drive into the neighbors lawn). My dad had already made it to the house, and I knew if anyone would know what to do it would be him. So I ran up the street and into my aunt’s house. Once word got out that my car was stuck, my sister, uncle, dad, and cousin were all out trying to help us. Caroline grabbed Ivy and took her inside. We decided the best thing to do was reverse back down the hill and drive it a few blocks over where the hill was less steep and we could approach the street from the top of the hill. The problem was that there was an intersection at the bottom of the hill so if for some reason the car wouldn’t stop as it was going down the hill, it would potentially end up careening into oncoming traffic. The thought of executing this kind of terrified me. But my dad stepped up to the plate and did it for me. And thankfully, a police officer was driving by and saw that we were stuck and offered to hold the traffic at the intersection while we reversed the car down the hill. So it all got solved rather easily when all was said and done. My dad drove it down the hill and around the corner.

I was definitely feeling the whole damsel-in-distress thing. I had no idea how to get the car up the hill and I definitely didn’t feel comfortable driving down the hill into oncoming traffic. But I knew I could run to my dad (literally this time), and he would know what to do. He came in and saved the day!

Afterwards I felt so loved and taken care of. I was so glad to have someone who could “save” me when I was in trouble. That’s the good part of the whole damsel-in-distress/knight-in-shining-armor thing.

The bad part is when it becomes a portrait of a women who is completely helpless and a man who storms the castle to rescue her and win her love and affection (oh, and she must be beautiful of course, to be worth all that trouble….I wonder how many ugly princesses are still trapped in castles to this day?)

While I don’t care for the whole woman-is-helpless aspect, I don’t think it bothers me as much as the idea that the man is storming in and saving the day so that he can then win the girl.

That’s what was so beautiful about my dad stepping in and saving the day: he’s my dad. He wasn’t doing it for any other motive than love for me. He wasn’t doing it to impress me or win me over. He was doing it because he’s my dad and cares about me (and maybe the car that he gave to me ;)). I didn’t feel like I “owed” him anything afterwards. And I didn’t have to be good enough or pretty enough to be worthy of his help. I was worthy simply by being me. That’s what the damsel-in-distress thing should be about. And, funny, it bears a striking resemblance to the way God loves us. We don’t have to be pretty or good to receive his love and deliverance. It’s there because he’s our Father and we’re his kids. And that’s all there is to it.