Beyond Bloodshed…
In this last week once again I have been confronted with war on three different occasions...
Firstly my second-eldest brother David sent me a video of the border war back in Namibia where all young men who just completed their education at high school in South Africa, where we stayed at the time, were ‘called up’ to do their defence force training and many ended up on the border, including my brother. I never really realised the dangerous situation he was in, as well as these other young men. We wrote letters to one another via ‘snail mail’ as there were no emails back in those days. In fact, strange now to think that we grew up without computers, tvs or even landline or mobile phones compared to all these contraptions today.
Getting back to my brother being on the border. We were so young and naive and I think these young men were forbidden from discussing the atrocities of what they saw and experienced and we never asked [much like the second world war my Daddy was sent to when he was only seventeen or so -the sensitive subject seemed to be tabu]
It felt like for the first time in my life I really grasped what my brother and these boys experienced [yes they were boys and not men yet] and felt so grateful to God that we left South Africa and our son with his sensitive spirit didn’t need to go to the army.
This week for the first time in my life I realised that South Africa sacrificed her sons sending them as soldiers to be slaughtered and that those that returned were scarred... some on the outside but all of them on the inside.
The second incident happened when I was with my grandchildren and they started watching a movie Mama put on for them that they both agreed on watching. It was only a cartoon called Hook, which is the story of Peter Pan and the story was set in the United Kingdom during the second world war... firstly it started off with the dad leaving to fight and then showed the mother and her children rushing off to a bomb shelter that was built in their backyard...
Then the notice came that the children had to be taken on trains to the countryside to be kept safe while their mothers stayed behind to assist with what needing doing to keep the Country ticking like a clock but in reality it more than likely felt more like a time bomb for those left behind. Over the years I have often been exposed to what took place but for the first time it felt like a knife cutting through my heart as I caught a glimpse of the cartoon the children were watching as I sat watching these little ones curled up on their couch. I realised that they were as oblivious as I had been over the years which is understandable because their focus was on Peter Pan, Tinkerbell and Captain Hook. I didn’t even want to imagine how my daughter and us as grandparents would feel living close to a city if it was these two precious children being shipped off somewhere to strangers. When those people put their precious ones on the train they needed incredible faith that Father God would protect their children and keep them safe and that they would be re-united as a family but there was no guarantee. I cannot imagine the heartache.
The third time there was a reference to the second world war was when I was listening to a pastor’s last message before he passed away where he mentioned that he was only 9 years old when the war started and that his dad had died when he was only 9 months old. I could relate to him because my Mommy died when I was 7 years old and my Daddy remarried my stepmom when I was 9 and I can remember how I felt as if the years melted, merging into 1969 once again and I was an innocent skinny legged little girl that had a shock to her system because before this event I had been cocooned in care and now as a little girl I had to face cold reality face to face.
It was here where memories flooded back of my Daddy and how he was just a boy himself when he had to leave his mother and younger siblings sailing on a ship on the seas from South Africa to where the war was being waged. I cannot imagine how my granny felt saying goodbye to her beloved eldest son not knowing if she would see him again. I wouldn’t have wanted to be put in her shoes.
I will forever be grateful to God that my father and brothers returned to us safely but not unscathed in their souls from the skirmishes and know it was by God’s grace that they managed to stay sane.
The above were obvious wars but if I think of the last few years and how many lives were lost in a very different kind of war against mankind with very different weapons, many emotions erupt within me where I saw families ripped apart by explosions of differing opinions regarding what went with this pandemic. What has happened has been a war against the world and just like a large tsunami running rampant – no one could just stand on the sidelines and just observe.
This brings me to my point -whether we would like to admit it or not we are in a war – daily.
-and warfare isn’t fair but one of the consequences we carry from choices made by Adam and Eve at the beginning of time.
We have a very real unseen evil enemy and we have to be aware at all times.
If there is any doubt in your mind read this passage from The Bible from John 10vs10 with Jesus speaking and reassuring us.
'The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.'
History records the hostility. He experienced evil against Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary with unimaginable cruelty and brutality where He paid the price for our sins and sickness which causes such sadness, pain, heartache and heartbreak in humanity. As Christians we can have the confidence in Jesus and this prayer He prayed at all times.
'My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your Word is truth. [Make them holy by Your truth; teach them your Word, which is truth]'
On this Anzac day, we remember all those who gave their lives for us but above all, we remember Who gave His sinless life for each and every one of us as sinners
-for our FREEDOM with immense gratitude
for His blood shed.
—
Brenda.ps23©