I conducted an informal, unofficial wedding ceremony today for a soldier who will be officially married by the justice of the peace tomorrow morning. It was a joyous affair for the third or so of our unit who attended amid their last minute preparations for family time.
I spoke of life and love as our rebellion against the realities of war, and today we all reveled in this unified rebellion.
In talking with some of the soldiers today, I noticed a growing sense of the surreal. There is an odd feeling--and I'm guessing it's typical of those in our situation--that our lives are about to change forever.
One soldier has experienced a rough couple of days. This experience was triggered by our mock memorial ceremony a few days ago. We ran through the Star Spangled Banner, the various individual tributes, the roll call with the eerie repetition of a soldier's name that will never receive a response, the firing of rifle volleys, the playing of TAPS, and the farewells.
The aforementioned soldier is well acquainted with death. She lost both of her parents as a baby. Death has followed her like a shadow her entire life. And now she prepares to enter a theater of war with soldiers who are largely unfamiliar with shadow of death, and fears that her own shadow will become their own. I feel her pain. May her fears prove unfounded.
But today we celebrated life and love. We can only truly celebrate these things if we are acquainted with death and know its power to rob men and women of life and love.
Love is strong as death. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. It's very flame is the flame of the LORD.
God grants us but a moment in this sin-wrecked, grace-maintained world. And He grants us life in His eternal love through pouring His just judgment upon His Son rather than us. This love makes our lives untouchable in Christ Jesus. It scatters the shadow with a thousand pinpricks of light. It empowers us to shout into the night "Where O death is thy sting? Where O grave is thy victory?" It grants us eternal comfort, knowing that we belong body and soul, in life and death, to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
