The Great Comforter

She stood. But she stood trembling. Trembling so violently she might have collapsed if not for her tiny fingers grasping His mane.

"So this is it?" she whispered. Her voice was frail, but He heard.

"Yes, Little One. This is the path I have chosen for you," He replied. She only nodded, her voice choked, with a fear she was ashamed of. Mist thick with an unknown future clouded all but a few feet before her. She grasped the Lion's mane tighter. He didn't flinch. She longed to ask Him; her soul seemed to cry out within her, but her lips remained still as death.

- Would this path be as hard, as scarring as the last? -

"Little One," He called to her softly, "look behind you."
She turned slowly, unwillingly. Tears soon distorted her vision, but she remembered. She remembered.

"When you fell, did I leave you for dead?"

She shook her head.

"Turn back around, Little One."

She obeyed.

"Do you believe if you fall again, I will leave you?"

She shook her head.

"Why, Little One, do you believe that?"

He waited patiently, until her fearful sobs no longer choked her voice.

"Because You love me."

The Lion nodded.

"Yes, my most precious Little One. I love you. Now hold on tightly."
So the child caught hold of the golden mane once more, and took her first few steps, the Lion's paws right beside her.