Here's a miracle only a soldier could appreciate.....
Posted : 7 Oct, 2009 04:22 AM
I work for the Sheriff's Office, Jail Division here in the largest city in the state of SD and a couple years ago a couple of my coworkers were stationed overseas, one in Afghanistan, and one in Iraq.
One day the guy in Afghanistan sent some pictures to one of my supervisors and the supervisor sent them to all of us. The beauty of technology was that email makes this all so very simple. Ya Gotta Love Digital. As I viewed the pictures I decided to forward them to my friend in Iraq, and told him if he had a chance, we would sure love to get pictures of him and his buddies too.
A couple weeks later, I was pleasantly surprised to find pictures from him in my email. I forwarded these pics to the same supervisor and he forwarded them around to everybody.
The next week I went to that supervisor and asked if they would trust me to take pictures of us to send to them, as long as I kept security and professionalism in mind, not take any photos of inmates and cleared all the pics with them, deleting any they didn't like. I half expect to get told no, but was pleased when they said yes.
It took me several weeks, actually, a couple months to take close to a hundred pictures, and each week I would send about half a dozen pictures of us hamming it up at the jail, waiving with signs saying everything from 'hello" to "Be Safe" "hurry home" and even "I'm with stupid-}" and "Wish You Were Here!".
I know they keep soldiers really busy and I figure that sometimes it really must be like living in a bubble over there thinking that people over here are living life and forgetting all about you soldiers over there, so it was really a labor of love, and when they both came home safely again, the both expressed how much it meant to them to get those pictures, but what I didn't know was that the miracle was still in front of me on this one.
When I thin of all the things that had to happen before this all came about, both soldiers had to take the initiative to take and send their photos, and that supervisor had he never forwarded those pictures, or had he denied my request, I would never have taken those pictures at all, but the Lord handles all the details, and He handles them perfectly.
What happened next, none of us saw coming. One of my coworkers died tragically when he took his life with a gun. It was a very difficult situation for all of us, but not so hard as it was for his parents, especially his poor Mother. She was heartbroken and could not understand why he didn't leave a note or something to tell her good bye, as he did call a couple friends to tell them good bye, but nothing for her. I told her that I didn't think it was about her, that the family part of his life was something that was right.
But the miracle and the Blessing in this was the one perfect picture I had taken of him just a few months before. It captured his essence perfectly and it was taken of him by himself in his uniform. I had the picture blown up to a 5X7 and we made three copies, one for his parents, one for his sister and one for his grandparents and we gave it to them from all his friends and coworkers and they all had nice matching frames. His Mom was so move and so pleased to have that picture, and I truly believe that from the moment the guy in Afghanistan pulled out his camera, God had this in mind.
How can you know that when you take that one perfect picture, that it is going to become that important? I could have missed him in the crowd or he could have declined to participate or I could have had him in a group of several, but somehow I have to believe God knew just how that picture needed to be.
And this miracle could never have happened had it not been for a couple of soldiers, yet look how many people it blessed along the way. I feel privileged the Lord chose me to help Him make this happen.
Isn't it amazing how God is in the details? I just want to bottle that and give it to all the people who do not know him, cuz there is nothing accidental, incidental or coincidental when it comes to how God works down to the smallest details in our lives if we only let Him in.
