REFLECTIONS

Paving Stones

Refreshed from the Archives of May 31, 2015

A few old army veterans surveyed the scene of one of history’s greatest battles. They had been a part of it. Tears flooded their eyes and streamed their cheeks as the horrors of the distant past collapsed into the vivid present. Bodies maimed, buddies lost, and prayers prayed. Unimaginable fear had wrenched their guts; unexplainable courage had moved them beyond it. They were the warriors who stood their ground and sacrificed their bodies and their lives. The pain from it had never really died. But the sacrifice was worth the pain, suffering, and loss of life. For that day became a paving stone that led to victory—nations saved, liberty secured.

Seventy years had passed since the blood of war smeared the sandy beach they were walking on. But as they walked and remembered the dead and wounded, the horrors of D-Day and the days that followed converged as if the road just traveled. Still unable to understand why their lives were spared when so many who shared their courage going into battle had not survived it. But it was a part of their journey through this world.

“Don’t look back, someone might be gaining on you,” the legendary Satchel Paige famously warned. But I don’t buy it. We all should look back sometimes to revisit the road just traveled. It is your journey through this world and from time to time pause to take stock of it. Remember the places visited and the people met along the way. Recall beauty that has passed before your eyes and view the scars that shaped your mind.

Look back into the lives of others as they journeyed through this world. Theirs are inseparable from the road you just traveled. They were a part of your journey and you a part of theirs. Allow precious memories of them to rekindle in your mind. The joys of life shared with them, the defeats suffered, and the battles won. Those are paving stones that have shaped the road you travel now.

Every person who has ever lived has taken the journey through this world, yet every path is unlike any other. Just as those old WWII veterans relived the indelible horrors of D-Day on Normandy beaches, revisit the impactful days that shaped your life. Those days are paving stones on the road that led to today. And today will lay paving stones that leads to tomorrow.

Look back. Discover beauty in the journey. Look back. Relive the pain that scarred your soul. And look again. Your life is a paving stone for those who follow you down the pathway of life. Then feel the presence of God.

He has been there all along lifting a lamp to your feet, shedding light to your path.

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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