Veteran’s Day 2007

 

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.” 2Timothy 2:3-5

 

            Usually around Veteran’s Day I think of old friends and past sorrows but this year my Uncle Harvey has haunted my thoughts and dreams. The family once owned The City Café in Bremen, but in my dreams Harvey has bought the old Hamburger Haven and it has now become the Hamburger Heaven. Actually Harvey went home to be with the Lord earlier this year.

            I once asked Harvey what he did in the war and he dismissed the matter saying he was “only an ambulance driver.” I suppose he diminished his part because of the exploits of three of his brothers, but I am keenly aware that a combat soldier has many support people making it possible for him to do his job. And an ambulance driver! He no doubt looks like an angel of mercy to some wounded man hoping to be taken to a place of relief and solace!

            Harvey once started to tell me about some men he had picked up from a vehicle (perhaps another ambulance) down in a gully. It seems that in the fluid situation of battle the road he had come down was once again in German hands. But he stopped in the middle of the account and switched the subject to some then current work in the ministry. I never found out how he and the injured men got out of the situation.

            At the time, when Harvey changed the subject, I thought I would have time to get back to it one day and found out what happened. But that was not to be. But in reflection, I think Harvey switched the subject to what he considered the most important thing, serving in the Lord’s Army. Harvey had come to the place in life where he knew and understood it was better to be a private in God’s Army than a general in an army of man. That is not a bad realization in a day when many Christians don’t seem to know they have enlisted and some want to be draft dodgers. Too many falter over worldly concerns that lose value in the light of eternity!

            Jonsquill Ministries

P. O. Box 752

Buchanan, Georgia 30113

171001-1