For some of us, 30 April marks a ‘memorable’ day in history. It marks the ‘official’ end of the Vietnam War – 30 April 1975. We who served during that conflict lost many friends. We also had friends who were held captive in the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ and other such places in Vietnam. Our lives were forever changed by that conflict. So was the United States. (Of course, that statement could be made by those who served in any war.) As we stress during our frequent presentations to students, “War is not fun. We who served and are serving our Country in the military hate war. However, freedom is not free! Therefore, when our Country calls, we serve.” On 30 April please say a special prayer for our Country and for those who made the supreme sacrifice during the Vietnam War.
The following is quoted from an email I received a long time ago. I don’t know the author but I’m certain he or she would not mind my sharing it with you.
“While watching a little TV on Sunday instead of going to church, I watched a Church in Atlanta honoring one of its senior pastors who had been retired many years.He was 92 at that time and I wondered why the Church even bothered to ask the old gentleman to preach at that age. After a warm welcome, introduction of this speaker, and as the applause quieted down, the old man rose from his high back chair and walked slowly, with great effort and a sliding gate to the podium.Without a note or written paper of any kind he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then quietly and slowly he began to speak. ‘When I was asked to come here today and talk to you, your pastor asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson ever learned in my 50 odd years of preaching. I thought about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my trials. The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heartbreak and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me… the only thing that would comfort was this verse………
‘Jesus loves me this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong,
We are weak but He is strong…..
Yes, Jesus loves me…
The Bible tells me so.’
When he finished, the church was quiet. You actually could hear his footsteps as he shuffled back to his chair.”
Please be assured that Our Lord loves each and every one of us. “No”- we don’t deserve nor have we earned that love. “So God loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
God Bless you and God Bless our Troops.
