My Get Pushed challenge this week is to "close your eyes and the first thing which comes into your mind you are thankful for....take the picture." When I did that, this cross at our church popped into my mind, for two reasons:
1. I'm very thankful for a loving God. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
2. This cross is a memorial for a soldier from our church who paid the ultimate sacrifice for his country and did not return home to his family. Our church is 75% military (either active duty, Reserve, National Guard, retired, or a family member), so we have been very blessed that no additional names have been added to his memorial. My husband has deployed three times. The first time to Desert Storm, the First Gulf War, his unit lost one person. We lost one friend in a helicopter accident in Germany a few years later. During his other deployments, one to Afghanistan and another to Iraq/Kuwait, his unit didn't see any major combat action, but one of his friends was hit in the shoulder by some shrapnel when a mortar hit the gym where he was working out (my husband was usually there working out with him, but had to got to another camp that day). We've had two friends come home with knee injuries from separate humvee accidents not related to combat. Another, burst an eardrum when something exploded near him. Another's ear was grazed by shrapnel. All of his friends who were injured fully recovered from their wounds. Another returned home, only to succumb to "silent wounds" a year later. So, for 28 years in the military, I am truly thankful that my husband has always returned home to me, in spite of the major tank battle and 90+ mortar attacks he has experienced. And while losing 3 friends was very hard, especially the suicide, I am truly thankful that number isn't higher.
fav