Happy Fourth! A Message from Pastor Dan “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6 Our oldest granddaughter, Sydney, just spent her first Fourth of July in service to our country. It was probably the first of many that she will be dressed in uniform rather that in shorts and tank top at the backyard BBQ. You see, Sydney just finished her first week as a Basic Cadet at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. One week! She has only just begun. And to think just a few weeks ago she graduated from high school – as a bubbly teenage girl. Now she is preparing to become an officer in the USAF, a branch of the finest military in the history of the world. We are proud of her and it makes this 4th a little extra special in what it means, and what our freedom costs. We don’t hear much. From her parents we get small tidbits of how things are going: swollen ankles, sore muscles, long days. But the one affliction that is rampant among these fourth-class cadets (first year) is homesickness, an affliction that hits most all freshmen college students, but especially Academy cadets who are so isolated from the outside word, especially family. But this is what makes last Sunday so special. Through the grapevine, Sydney’s parents heard that the cadets were given a choice last Sunday between a short phone call with parents or go to church. Sydney’s parents never received a phone call. They are certain she chose church. But not surprised. Since she was baptized as an infant girl in a church, she has spent most Sundays in a church over her next eighteen years. That was just the weekly rhythm of her family – church on Sunday. Sure, there were sporting events at times, illnesses, the need for a little extra sleep. But these were the exception, not the norm. Church was the norm. And now it continues. “Train a child in the way she should go, and when she is old she will not turn from it.” At the age of 18, freshly hatched from the incubator of childhood, in her first most challenging and lonely hour she chose not her parents for comfort, but her Lord and her Lord’s people. She knows that her parents cannot always be with her anymore, but Jesus can, and will, and was. Sure, she also knows she will see her parents soon enough, and is looking forward to that day in August. But until then she has God every day, and his church every Sunday – just as she has always known – and was taught. Salute, Pastor Dan
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 23:10:32 +0000
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