This attempt to 'break out' of the Allied lines - we know it today as 'The Battle of the Bulge.'
Sixty-nine years ago on 22 December 1944, the German commander, General Heinrich Freiherr von Luttwiz, sent the American commander on the surrounded 101st Airborne at Bastogne, General Anthony McAuliffe the following message:
To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.
The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. More German armored units have crossed the river Our near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands.
There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note.
If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hours term.
All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the well-known American humanity.
The German Commander.
General McAuliffe, responded with a now famous one-word answer, 'NUTS!'
Typically, we have an image in our minds as to what military members are like. Soldiers and Marines get the brunt of the stereotypes, but the Navy and Air Force do not escape it either.
Combat veterans of all branches are sometimes stereotyped as ruthless knuckle-draggers, who are in the military because they couldn't find a 'real' job somewhere else.
Their language is filled with profanity; their morals lacking; their hygiene is debatable and they are generally not considered as the cream of the crop.
Below is a WWII photo of General McAuliffe.
Oh, how little we know of those who serve!
General McAuliffe was known for his integrity and was known for never using profanity. That's why his answer to the Germans was so confusing.
He was married only once, having two children and was one of the 'brain trusts' of the war; rising to full general before he retired.
As Americans, we should value a man such as this and we should value our heritage; never forgetting what they did in 1944 to save the world from the threat of Nazism.
Yet, from this history lesson, we should also examine our relationship with God.
For, just as we have stereotypes about soldiers and combat vets, we also have stereotypes and preconceived ideas about God.
Every person has an image of God; due to our nature and to the greatness of God, that image is distorted in some way.
Our very nature is fallen; we have fallen into a fog where we cannot see things as well as those who lived before the fall nor as we will after Christ restores the universe to its original state.
Yet, this fog affects everything in our lives and around our lives, including how we see God.
This, along with God we so grand that He transcends our ability to rightly imagine Him, clogs our vision of God and communing with Him.
This being true, it begs a question - 'If our view of God is distorted, how do we know God?'
I know my wife better than any other person on the planet knows her.
The same is true with her 'knowing' me; she knows me as well as I know myself - which makes me marvel at the fact that she has stuck with me. :)
But all relationships have an uncertainty to them and a mysterious quality.
In truth, we fall short in knowing one another as fully as we could; so, if this true of humans how much more true is it of an infinite God among finite beings?
Although I despise cell phones, it is amazing how they work.
I can speak in a cell phone, which will send a signal to a tower in digital code. That tower will send that digitize voice code to a satellite, which will relay that digital code to another tower on earth and then to another receiver such as a friend's cell phone.
But they are not hearing my voice, they are hearing a very close replica in a digitized code of my voice.
This is what Christians are to be in the world for Christ - a very close replica of who He is and what He does in the life of others.
But those of us who follow Jesus sometimes have very different thoughts on Christ as to who He is and what He has done in our lives and even how He should be approached and how we are to reflect the Lord.
Think about it - in three years with Jesus, Judas and John drew very different conclusions.
When the Jewish leader Saul was chasing down Christians and killing them, he believed he had figured out Jesus; little did he know he was about to get a name change and a heart change to go with it.
Truthfully, knowing God is tricky at times; but the most logical way to begin to know God and explore who He is and who He desires us to become is through the act of prayer.
Prayer is the most common and easiest act of a faithful Christian; yet, it is the most neglected.
But prayer is the only way we can begin to know God.
Prayer is like breathing, it keeps us alive spiritually as oxygen does physically.
All Biblical figures who are now considered great saints and guides of faith from the past, were what they were because they were defined by God and accepted His definition.
I am who I am and will become as a Christian who I am to be by relating to God and discovering in His will who He has 'defined' or created me to be in this world.
The truth is that God cannot be grasped by the human mind; if He could be, then He would not be God.
The human mind and its conceptions are limited whereas God is infinite; a finite cannot rightly conceive the infinite - and yet another reason why we are to be thankful for grace and accept Him by faith.
You see, God is both a self-concealer and a self-revelator; He satisfies our thirst and remains the Great Unknown.
But we do not need, as Christians, the full revelation or the full exposing of who God is or what He intends to do with the Universe.
All we truly need is for Him to reveal to us and expose to us His will for our lives so that we can become the men and women He has created and ordained us to be.
And that happens by relating to God through the private act of prayer.
Until next time, Merry Christmas and win won for the good guys.
The German commander had no idea what the message meant, until another soldier told the Nazi soldier under the flag of true that it meant they could all go to H**L.
All this to say, from that one response, the actions of the 101st Airborne during the battle and the historical lessons which came from that nearly 2 month period in the Ardennes, taught me quite a bit about our relationship with the Lord.
Combat veterans of all branches are sometimes stereotyped as ruthless knuckle-draggers, who are in the military because they couldn't find a 'real' job somewhere else.
Their language is filled with profanity; their morals lacking; their hygiene is debatable and they are generally not considered as the cream of the crop.
Below is a WWII photo of General McAuliffe.
Oh, how little we know of those who serve!
General McAuliffe was known for his integrity and was known for never using profanity. That's why his answer to the Germans was so confusing.
He was married only once, having two children and was one of the 'brain trusts' of the war; rising to full general before he retired.
As Americans, we should value a man such as this and we should value our heritage; never forgetting what they did in 1944 to save the world from the threat of Nazism.
Yet, from this history lesson, we should also examine our relationship with God.
For, just as we have stereotypes about soldiers and combat vets, we also have stereotypes and preconceived ideas about God.
Every person has an image of God; due to our nature and to the greatness of God, that image is distorted in some way.
Our very nature is fallen; we have fallen into a fog where we cannot see things as well as those who lived before the fall nor as we will after Christ restores the universe to its original state.
Yet, this fog affects everything in our lives and around our lives, including how we see God.
This, along with God we so grand that He transcends our ability to rightly imagine Him, clogs our vision of God and communing with Him.
This being true, it begs a question - 'If our view of God is distorted, how do we know God?'
I know my wife better than any other person on the planet knows her.
The same is true with her 'knowing' me; she knows me as well as I know myself - which makes me marvel at the fact that she has stuck with me. :)
But all relationships have an uncertainty to them and a mysterious quality.
In truth, we fall short in knowing one another as fully as we could; so, if this true of humans how much more true is it of an infinite God among finite beings?
Although I despise cell phones, it is amazing how they work.
I can speak in a cell phone, which will send a signal to a tower in digital code. That tower will send that digitize voice code to a satellite, which will relay that digital code to another tower on earth and then to another receiver such as a friend's cell phone.
But they are not hearing my voice, they are hearing a very close replica in a digitized code of my voice.
This is what Christians are to be in the world for Christ - a very close replica of who He is and what He does in the life of others.
But those of us who follow Jesus sometimes have very different thoughts on Christ as to who He is and what He has done in our lives and even how He should be approached and how we are to reflect the Lord.
Think about it - in three years with Jesus, Judas and John drew very different conclusions.
When the Jewish leader Saul was chasing down Christians and killing them, he believed he had figured out Jesus; little did he know he was about to get a name change and a heart change to go with it.
Truthfully, knowing God is tricky at times; but the most logical way to begin to know God and explore who He is and who He desires us to become is through the act of prayer.
Prayer is the most common and easiest act of a faithful Christian; yet, it is the most neglected.
But prayer is the only way we can begin to know God.
Prayer is like breathing, it keeps us alive spiritually as oxygen does physically.
All Biblical figures who are now considered great saints and guides of faith from the past, were what they were because they were defined by God and accepted His definition.
I am who I am and will become as a Christian who I am to be by relating to God and discovering in His will who He has 'defined' or created me to be in this world.
The truth is that God cannot be grasped by the human mind; if He could be, then He would not be God.
The human mind and its conceptions are limited whereas God is infinite; a finite cannot rightly conceive the infinite - and yet another reason why we are to be thankful for grace and accept Him by faith.
You see, God is both a self-concealer and a self-revelator; He satisfies our thirst and remains the Great Unknown.
But we do not need, as Christians, the full revelation or the full exposing of who God is or what He intends to do with the Universe.
All we truly need is for Him to reveal to us and expose to us His will for our lives so that we can become the men and women He has created and ordained us to be.
And that happens by relating to God through the private act of prayer.
Until next time, Merry Christmas and win won for the good guys.
No comments:
Post a Comment