Strong Arms

I write silly stories. Su writes devotionals. That explains a great deal about us.

Currently, Susan is working on a special devotional for our grandchildren. Personally, I think she is enjoying it way too much.

Yesterday she wrote about God's strength. In the process she remembered how much she used to admire her own father's strength. She always thought of him as having strong arms. Recently Susan wrote to her father about her childhood memories of his muscles. He responded by sending her an email about what it means to have real strength.

My father-in-law had an interesting and blessed career in the US Navy. I won't go into all of it. I will tell you the first time I heard the whole story of his experiences in WW II, I laughed until I cried. I hasten to add that while Bob can tell about it with a great deal of humor, there is another side to the story. The truth is, his Navy experience allowed him to return to civilian life unscathed. It also allowed him to study medicine... something he might not have been able to do without those G.I. benefits. In retrospect I think he felt he was greatly blessed by how God used his military experience in his life.

Toward the end of WWII Bob ended up as the morale officer at the navy base in Norman, Oklahoma. Like I said, my father-in-law's experiences were unusual. Who ever heard of Oklahoma needing a navy base? (Although if you were in the navy and assigned to Oklahoma I CAN understand why you might need a morale officer!) One of his roles was to give the final discharge papers to sailors as they left the navy. His job was to thank them, give them the papers and to shake hands with each one. Many of those sailors were Seabees and had no idea how powerful their grip had become. When evening came, young Ensign Bob Sawtell would go home with a swollen and painful right hand.

Bob realized those sailors did not get that strength from sunbathing on a beach in the South Pacific. Their work in winning the war is what had made their hands so strong.

By the way, Dr. Sawtell says there was no shouting or clapping at the end of the ceremony... only silence and a few tears. Most had hard memories of what they had gone through and of friends that didn't make it back to be discharged in Oklahoma - or anyplace else.

Each of us is given the strength we need for today. Paradoxically, when we use that strength up we seem to get more. Like the sailors Bob discharged, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

As I go through life I am amazed at my own weakness and God's corresponding strength. It says in Jeremiah 32:17, "Oh, Lord God, you did indeed make heaven and earth by your mighty power and great strength. Nothing is too hard for you!" That is the God we serve with our weakness. That is the God who will continue to give us the strength we need for each day.