In my head, trapped in repeat, playing over and over when I ready for bed, when I’m alone, when I hear their voices and look upon their lost faces. A moment in time, from a time long ago.
The thoughts as I awaited to die. The clarity before the silence shattered. The homily of pending bloodshed. The Preacher’s voice out in the quiet, a sermon given to all with ears.
“…The Word Made Flesh.
In Him was life (our lives) and that life is the Light in all of us.
The true light, the light that gives Life to everyone.
The light that shines in the darkness.
The Word made to dwell amongst us. With us always, Body and Blood, amongst us.
Forgiveness amongst us….”
On foreign land I heard the words, first as a whisper then a drumbeat.
A clarity broken. Violence, was at hand.
War.
Not a rumor of war.
War.
Before that day was over, blood spilled. Dangerous men facing dangerous men. The young sent to settle what peace could not.
Know this and know it well, there are things in this life you cannot unsee.
Meaningless.
When the broken day had mended and the roar of killing silenced, clarity returned, and with it, the stain of meaninglessness.
For the Word made Flesh came for all of us. Not for lines on a map or the highest GDP, but for all of us. I didn’t think like that then, but the Word has had time to dwell in me. The light has had time to give me new Life.
My time living dangerously long over, as it is for the men that stood next to me and across from me. For the ones that stand no more, I remember them daily. I remember the ones that wore my uniform and the ones that didn’t. All of us, brothers in the light.
Always and everywhere.
A child was born.
Rejoice, rejoice Immanuel.
