We Interrupt These Excuses...

Yesterday my baby brother and my brother-in-law (who I've known longer than my baby brother) came home safely from war.  The day before that it was my oldest nephew Adam.  It was baby Barn and Adam's second deployment.  My other little brother faces his second deploy in December.  My brother-in-law on the other side has already been twice.  My big brother has seen a tour.  We are no strangers to praying for soldiers around here.  While we have been to more send-offs and homecomings than a lot of Americans it never gets old hat.  The more times I see them go makes me all the more thankful to God that he has brought them back to us safely.  We are very proud of them and the service they choose to perform for their country.

We studied Flying Creatures of the Third Day (of creation) last year.  As insects grow to maturity they  molt to shed their exoskeleton and make room for their enlarging innards.  When the new shell is still pliable the insect fills its lungs with air to stretch and make room for itself as it grows.

We welcome our soldiers home and consciously or not  expect them to slip back into their old skins.  But much like a molting insect their old skins are no longer sufficient.  They inhaled deeply, girded their loins, and with steps of great courage shed who they once were to become who they were called to be.  War, while it causes the adrenaline to rush, is not a moving picture to excite and be turned off at the end of a Friday night before falling into a soft bed.  As a life experience of any magnitude our soldiers are returned to us changed.

If I were to continue with the life cycle of the insect I might write here of metamorphosis.  Giving up who you once were to become something better, more beautiful.  This is not always the case in matters of war.  Which is why our prayers do not cease for our soldiers and those that love them.  We do not only learn in moments of comfort and ease.  God has much to teach us through tribulation.

My prayer is that through the struggle of finding who they now are that God will be praised, we will be graceful, and they will draw ever close to He who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy!(Jude 24)