Eight-year-old Christian Moore touched hearts around the world when a photo of him comforting an autistic classmate on their first day of school was posted to Facebook, ABC News reports.
Connor Crites, also 8, began crying outside the school gates, ahead of his first day as a second-grader at Minneha Elementary School in Wichita, Kansas earlier this month.
The young boy told local news station KAKE: "[Christian] was kind to me. I started crying and then he helped me. And, I was happy... He found me and held my hand and I got happy tears."
The heartwarming post, which has since been removed, had been shared at least 21,000 times.
Courtney Moore, Christian's mother, watched proudly from a distance as her kind-hearted son held the hand of a fellow classmate in distress.
"I saw [Christian] on the ground with Connor as Connor was crying in the corner and he was consoling him," she said. "He grabs his hand and walks him to the front door. We waited until the bell rang and he walked him inside of the school. The rest is history. They have an inseparable bond."
Needless to say, Connor's mother, April Crites, felt a lot of gratitude towards Christian for not only consoling her anxious son but also for befriending him.
Crites has since reached out to Moore on Facebook in order to stress how thankful she is that her son managed to form such a strong bond with a child as compassionate as Christian.
Writing to Moore on Facebook, Crites explained: "I worry every day that he is going to get bullied for being different and your son just absolutely warmed my heart. If there were more children like him I wouldn't worry about such things."
Crites told KAKE that she was concerned her son would be subject to bullying due to the behavioural differences between him and the other students.
"I fear every day that someone is going to laugh at him because he doesn't speak correctly, or laugh at him because he doesn't sit still or because he jumps up and down and flaps his hands," she said.
"It doesn't matter colour, it doesn't matter gender, it doesn't matter disability, and it doesn't matter anything, just be kind, open your heart... it's what we need in this world."
The touching moment has since spawned a Facebook page titled "Christian & Connor Bridging The Gap" with the aim of "taking a stand against bullying, violence and racism".