“If you make my Word your home, you will indeed be my disciples. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:13 New Jerusalem Bible.)
This week marks the date 25 years ago that my father died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 70. My immediate grief response of denial was captured in my wailing words of, “Not my Dad!” Through the years, I have returned to those words of agony and asked myself, “What is it that contributed to that deep loss?” In doing so I have always discovered the incredible positive remembrances and impact he had on my life for 34 years and the legacy that has inspired 25 years that have followed.
He was a man of deep faith, with a gentle spirit, a love of history, a source of profound grace and a depth of character I have sought to model. In the face of potential military service at the height of WWII, he chose another option toward peace. As a conscientious objector with deep family roots in the Church of the Brethren, he offered his life for three years of required alternative service. That service took him from Indiana to “Camp Walhalla” here in Michigan to work in the conservation corps planting the row upon row of pine trees you find on state and federal land in that region. He then traveled to the northwest and served in a logging camp in Oregon. His farming skills learned behind a team of horses, “Bob & Barney”, two large black Percherons, had equipped him to work the teams of horses used in the logging operations in that region. He and six friends from college then became part of a two year medical experiment. They served as “human guinea pigs” in a diet, exercise and fitness study conducted by Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. His service was no more or less valiant than those who stormed Normandy; it simply was “another path toward peace.”
“…and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks…neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4).
In these days of multiple horrific events of violence piling on top of one another and with more than a decade of active military engagements across the globe, I am left wondering and praying for “another path toward peace” besides killing people so they won’t kill people. I know that is not a new phrase or prayer, but I offer it evermore fervently than before. I wonder, what we can teach our children and grandchildren about finding another way?
When I see the smile on this child’s face standing next to his grandfather, I am reminded to pray. I pray for children who have little to eat, let alone gallons of popcorn that would be gone in a weekend. I pray for children who do not have the blessing and legacy of personally knowing grandparents and parents who love them deeply and sacrifice willingly for them. I pray for the “children” who choose to use a gun as their perceived solution to justice. I ask myself, what level of desperation and hatred motivates a young man to burglarize a home and then shoot the young mother as the one-year-old plays in the corner? I then pray that God might use me help change the factors that led to that motivation.
I re-read the family Christmas letters we have sent. I have 30 years of copies along with letters my parents sent more than 50 years ago. They are a family journal in one sense and glimpse into my own soul at that time. Linda and I wrote the following in December of 1994. Fascinating how it still applies today: The music on the cassette tape played as the mini-van scurried down the by-pass on a routine commute to pre-school with our youngest daughter, Hannah. The melody followed a calypso beat “… the Virgin Mary had a baby boy….and they gave him the name of Jesus.” But young ears don’t always hear and understand so clearly.
“Mom, that tape’s not right! They’re saying Joseph’s name wrong! They just said Virg and Mary had a baby boy.”
Our letter continued: Indeed our ears don’t always hear and understand clearly. The voice of the lonely is lost. The cry of the needy is ignored. The moan of the suffering is minimalized. But…the baby was “…Messiah, Wonderful Counselor, the Might God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace!” Voices were given new strength with His coming! Those who have ears to hear, let them hear!
Over and over again we are reminded of how God goes ahead of us in the dark to Light the way; beneath us in our weakness to Sustain us with strength; and is within us as an unending source of Grace, Forgiveness and Love to be shared generously with the world.
Peace, Benton Heisler
Director of Connectional Ministries WMC
Last Updated on December 15, 2023