Isaiah 2:4
He will settle arguments between nations. They will pound their swords and their spears into rakes and shovels; they will never make war or attack one another.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
Shortly before Christmas Day 1943, Charles Brown, a 21-year-old West Virginia farm boy, was flying his first WWII combat mission over Germany. His B-17 had been shot to smithereens, several crew members were injured… and his tail gunner was dead. As Brown looked out his window, he saw German 2nd Lt. Franz Stigler fly alongside him in his ME-109. Brown assumed Stigler would finish off him and his crew… and indeed, Stigler had his hand on the trigger to do so.
But Stigler thought of his own older brother, killed earlier in the war. Here was his chance to mete revenge… and to earn a medal for valor – Germany’s highest military honor – if only he could score one more kill. But as Stigler looked at the bloodied body of the tail gunner, he realized that he would be committing murder. He knew that to fail to complete this mission could result in execution if someone reported him. But as a man who had once studied for the priesthood, Stigler pressed his fingers to his rosary and realized that he lived by a Higher Code of honor. So he saluted American pilot Brown and safely escorted the crippled plane to the German border.
I encourage you to take a few minutes and read this entire story at http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/09/living/higher-call-military-chivalry. Learn how the lives of these men – and countless others – were changed forever on this December day in 1943. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but see God’s hand in this…how He settled the arguments between nations for at least two young men. The reason I share this story with you is twofold… 1) we are nearing our country’s Independence Day… a time when we pause to celebrate our freedom - and those who helped secure it; and 2) this story serves to once again remind us of God’s profound desire for us to live together in peace and harmony… a desire so intense that He would convict the heart of one enemy of war and prevent him from firing on another.
In our daily living, God is hard at work providing us with opportunities to choose to “remove our hand from the trigger”… to operate by a Higher Code of honor… to create and preserve an atmosphere of peace – for ourselves and for those in our midst. This is so characteristic of the God we serve… to want us to get along and operate in peace and calm so passionately that He would go to great lengths to convict us to do the right thing. God wants us to experience serenity and harmony so much that He would provide us with a “safe escort to the border” while enemies swarm us. God is calling on us to “pound our swords and spears into rakes and shovels” and never make war again.
The question for today is this… who – or what – are you battling? Where are you experiencing chaos and turmoil… where so you need to surrender to a Higher Code of honor – GOD’s code? Who do you need to “salute” and “escort to the border” with a heavy dose of compassion and grace? Have you considered what might transpire as a result?
Will this be the year that you celebrate Independence Day with a new perspective… free of the burdens of discord with others? Shouldn’t it?
©2013 Debbie Robus
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