JESUS WEPT

What's in a title?  I usually try to title my post as to catch your attention hoping you will read my post.  Today I thought of "When I was a child I thought as a child."  Then I said to myself maybe  " No greater love has a man ."  Then I read a column in the Douglas County Sentinel.  Although  Jesus wept, was no where in the column,  I knew this had to be the title.

When I was a child one of my favorite toys were little plastic soldiers.  They came in a bag and there were many different men, all army green, and made of a rubbery like plastic that wouldn't break and would last forever it seemed.  You could play with them inside the house on rainy days or outside and build forts for them out or twigs and squares of moss cut with a kitchen knife.  You could play by yourself or with your best friend.  As I've told you in the past my street had many children within a couple of years of my age and sometimes we would play army.  Our battle field would be in every back yard and the alleys that ran behind the houses.  We had play guns of course, rifles and pistols, and if you got shot you had to count to 100 and you were alive again.  It was a fun time and war was thought of as glamorous at that time in my life.  Most of our fathers had been in WWII but they never talked a lot about it.  Later in my life,  when I was in about the eleventh grade, all the talk was about a place called
Viet Nam.  It was a far away land that many of our friends were going to.  There was a draft going on then and most likely unless you were married with a child or in college that's where you were headed.  There was a war going on over there that most of us had no idea what it was about.  Even to this day I don't totally understand what we were fighting for.   Our only guarantee was the we would probably end up in one branch of the service.   I was able to get into the Navy Air Corp and lucky that I never ended up in Viet Nam.  The service back then was much different than today in that probably 80% to 90% of us didn't want to be in.  Today's army is all volunteer.  Therefore, I believe a much better army.  As I said,  I never had to go to Viet Nam but many of my friends did.  Many of my friends on face book were there.  Many of my friends never came back and some that came back were never the same.  In fact maybe none that came back were ever the same.  One of my close friends,  Ken Blair, was killed over there and hardly a day passes that I don't think of Ken.  I saw Ken the day before he was leaving in the parking lot of South Cobb Pharmacy.  We talked a little about him going and about getting together when he came home for a couple of beers.  We laughed as young men will do and you could tell Ken was not afraid at all.  Of course if you knew Ken,  you know he wasn't afraid of anything.  I'll never forget when I heard he had been killed.  It was like my heart stopped beating.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  I think at that moment,  for the first time,  I realize war wasn't a game.  Ken couldn't count to 100, be alive and play anymore.  And...........I wept.     

Last week  U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Scott “Boots” Harper  was killed in Afghanistan.  He had volunteed to serve in the Marines.  He knew he was going to war.  Like Ken,  I'm sure Scott was not afraid.  I didn't know Scott but he lived in Winston Ga,  the same town as I.  Scott went to Alexander High School, the same school as Josh.  Yesterday they brought his body home.  People lined the streets to welcome and honor him.  Young and old.  White and black.  Men and women. Democrats and Republicans.  They waived flags and they saluted.  They bowed their heads and prayed.  And ...........................They Wept. 

Rest in Peace U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Scott “Boots” Harper .

And may God Bless America.