Words of Faith

It was a day I will never forget. I don’t know if it was the “hurry up and wait” situation that prevailed in the day, or the wish for time to stand still, but the day is etched in memory forever. It began with a 4:00 am wake up call, and ended with a chaotic call from a new recruit shouting words from a written script before him, along with hundreds of other young men, that was abruptly cut off after the words, “I love you and goodbye.”

There was consolation that I was not the only mother holding on to every last moment with her son. We were not the only family to obtain special “escort” tickets that allowed us to pass through the security checkpoint and on to the gate of the flight that would take our child to a new life. There were four others. The new recruits were nervous, one could see it in their eyes, but everyone involved tried to make the situation upbeat and positive. The reality of what they had just done in the official swearing in ceremony, as well as what they were about to do as they stepped onto the plane must have been settling into the minds of these young men. But they were answering a higher call in their lives. The eyes of their parents also belied the struggle in their hearts between sheltering and protecting their children and supporting and encouraging them in the choice to make a difference in the world, that drove each of them on.

We were not the only ones to press our hands to the glass as we left them at the breezeway and hurried down the corridor to the large windows overlooking the airplane at the gate. We were not alone as we went from one side of the hall to the other, following the large jet on its journey around the wing of airport gates and to the end of the runway. Several of us stood before huge plates of glass, the runway before us, watching as the aircraft increased in speed and finally lifted off the ground, waving to blank windows in the event that, by chance, one of our sons would be sitting behind one of those small windows looking out.

And off they went for the next 13 weeks.

I wondered, through it all, as we stood watching these events unfold, if this was similar to how things may have transpired in Heaven when God sent His only Son to earth on His mission of redemption. When He left the splendor of Heaven, was God wiping the tears from his eyes? Were the angels hiding their tears in support? Were they pressing their hands and faces against the windows of Heaven, watching for the last glimpses of their beloved King? As Jesus traveled down in time and space, were they waiting at the glass until the last possible moment? Did they extend themselves at the meeting place of all that is earthly with all that is spiritual until that last parting second? Did they gaze in sorrow, yet anticipation (as we did) at the awful, yet joyful work of redemption that awaited the Son of Heaven?

We were spared (or denied, depending on your perspective) the trauma of watching our sons molded from boys to men. But Heaven had to watch the transformation of royalty to suffering servant before the triumph was completed. We can imagine what the disciples and Jesus earthly family went through, but what about what Heaven went through? I wondered as I watched the airplane make a turn and disappear in the blueness above.

We sleep peacefully in our beds each night because of brave young men and women who answered the call to give their lives for the safety of their countrymen; who take harm, danger and bullets for us, so we don’t have to.

We can travel peacefully and assuredly through the often tumultuous and difficult situations and days of our lives here on earth because of the One who laid down His life for us, took our penalty on Himself, so we would not have to, and rose triumphantly to lead us into Life with Him forever.

I am eternally grateful to both.

There is never nothing going on. Think about that for a moment. Pause and listen. There is always something going on. I realized that anew one recent morning on my walk around “the circle”, the 2.5-mile loop of a road that passes by my house. I paused a few feet from my remote driveway. It was very early in the morning, but still there was activity around me. A dog barked in the distance. Some kind of strange little noise seemed to come from several logs by the side of the road. A raven flew overhead, its wings flapping in the early morning air. Then there was the steady crunch of the dirt and gravel as I continued down the road, which let me know that I was still alive and moving through the morning. A slight breeze picked up, and the boughs of the many pinion and juniper trees that cover the land out here swayed ever so lightly. There was much going on that morning. There is much going on all around us at any given moment in time, and it is not all physical. There is certainly a lot going on all around if we take the time to listen and absorb our surroundings. There is, however, also a lot going on that we can not take notice of with our 5 senses. There is another entire realm of life that is going on that we are not necessarily in tune with. In Scriptures, the angel Michael tells Daniel that his prayer was heard and answered the moment it was uttered, and help was sent, but there was a struggle, a battle, in the spiritual world between the forces of good and evil. Spiritual forces prevented- or at least held up the answer to prayers. Just as there is always something going on in the physical world, there is always something going on in the spiritual realm as well. I can not begin to imagine the work out that any angelic beings assigned to me must get. My three boys growing up, and perhaps even more so as they reach young manhood, have certainly kept their angels busy. Though we may say that in a humorous way, the reality of life is that we do have angels assigned to us, they do protect us and watch over us, and their battles are very real and intense. The battles are not necessarily limited to our physical well-being, either. Although I can not count the times angels must have been between my car and another car, pushing for all they’re worth to prevent an accident, (like in all my close calls in ABQ) I am equally convinced that the Lord and His angels do great battle on my behalf for my spiritual well-being also. Consider that we have a fierce and determined enemy, driven by pure hatred and evil. He is outraged that many of God’s wonderful creation have accepted His gift of reconciliation, redemption and forgiveness, and are following close after the Master of the universe. The enemy is livid that creation has been bought back with the ultimate sacrifice of God’s Son, and mankind is free. He will stop at nothing to ruin man again. He fights with us and for us daily. Although Satan knows he is defeated, he never stops the tug of war. He challenges us to see if we know that he is defeated and act accordingly. There is always something going on, and while many of the battles are fought in the realm of the invisible, our enemy is not above inserting himself into our physical realm, like he did in the garden with Eve. We must recognize the battle, stand in the power of the blood and the risen Lord, and refuse his wiles. There are battles going all around. Many are fought for and over us, but many need to also be fought by us, with the power of the Lord within us. We can rise up against evil in the physical world as well as the spiritual world if we only realize the power of God that is at our disposal. It is at our disposal day or night, 24/7. The Lord has promised never to leave us alone or defenseless. We can call on Him and draw on Him at all times. [God ] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support…[I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!] Hebrews 13:5 Amplified Bible. We can keep alert to the continual love and blessings of the Lord as well as the battles, and remember that there is never nothing going on.