A Little Bit of Faith: A Special Moment

I wish everyone could experience the joy of watching two people from different races come to an understanding of each other because of one collective experience. I was fortunate enough to have experienced this at Red Lobster one weekend not so long ago with my father. My father is a Vietnam veteran who served nearly 30 years in the Army. When he came back from two tours of Vietnam, there were no parades, no one was thanking him for his service, and he was told not to wear his dress uniform too often in public. It was as if he had to be a secret agent.

This particular Saturday evening my father was in town visiting and insisted that we go out to dinner. As always, he had on his official Army cap that identified his ranking in the military. While laughing, talking, and taking pictures at the table, a distinguished older white gentleman saw my father and said to him, “Thank you for your service.” My father immediately reached his hand across the table to shake the other man’s hand. Watching this moment, I knew was special. As I listened to the two men speak of their experiences during the Vietnam war, the white gentleman said to my father, “I was on the supply ship, I wasn’t on the ground like you were, sir.” My father in a kind voice replied, “It doesn’t matter, we were all fighting the same war. Everybody had their part to play.” The white gentleman looked in my father’s eyes and they connected. It was as if years of misunderstandings on both sides of their experiences dividing them by race began to erode away. My father asked him a few more questions and they spoke of their own experiences and yet, there lives were connected because they were trying to stay alive during the Vietnam war.

And like these two men were willing to lay down their lives for our country, our Heavenly Father did the same for us. In the book of John, it said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).  It is always interesting when God allows two people who are different to be able to connect because of one experience. They were no longer black or white, they were two men discussing and being thankful for surviving the war and appreciating the role that both men had during a time when they were young and fighting a war that was unpopular. God always has a rainbow at the end of a cloud somewhere. Amen? Amen.