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- Mar 26, 2002
- Messages
- 1,861
That this is off topic only means it is not about Khuks. I think it IS about what we are about as human beings, and war, and our ultimate strength.
Let me set the stage.
My father and his brother Charles (Uncle Bub) were as close as two people could ever be. Bub was two years younger than Dad. According to my father, Bub was one of the most beautiful, loving people who ever lived.
He asked very little for himself and spent his time caring for people. For instance when he bought a new pair of shoes, he left the old ones. He didn't need the physical things of life to be happy. He had his friends and his God. He did like writing, but he never kept the things he wrote. He gave them away.
Let's go back a few years to the early 1940's.
The war in Europe was building and we in America were doing our best to stay out of it. We had mostly dismantled our military after WWI and vowed never to get into another war like that again.
December 7th, that isolation was torn apart. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, nearly wiping out our Pacific fleet. Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.
America mobilized. And enlisted. Among these men were my father and Uncle Bub. Dad to the Navy for the sea that he loved and Bub to the air force for he loved the freedom of the skies.
The first time in their lives that they were apart. Dad's last memory of Bub was when Dad put him on a train at the Atlanta Terminal Station Bub was traveling to Sebring Florida Training facility.
Dad joined the Navy and went to South America.
Two days before Christmas in 1943, I was two months old, a bomber on a training mission was attempting a landing at Sebring. The pilot had been wraned off due to heavy ground fog. His last words were, "This is war, we have got to take chances."
Uncle Bub was dead at the age of 21.
Dad was unable to return for the funeral. He went into a fit of depression and asked himself, "Why did God let this happen?" Dad's faith was shaken for the first time in his life. This fear, this depression was made worse when one of our airplanes came down out of the night sky and strafed Dad's ship mistaking it for a Japanese destroyer. Seven of Dad's crewmates died that night.
A week after Bub's death a letter arrived, mailed that day before he died. An Answer.
I want to share this with you. And I ask you to pass it on. I think that you know soemone who needs to hear it. I do.
The Answer
I clenched my fist and shook it
At the clear blue sky above,
"Where are you God?" I shouted,
And where's your wondrous love?"
"How can you be so heartless
With your children here below?
How can you let this war rage on
And weak ones suffer so?
My anger mounted fiercely 'til
My voice would come no more;
And wearily I crumpled to
The earth's soft grassy floor
Then presently I heard a voice
A still, small voice quite near;
It called my name and whispered
Reassurance in my ear.
"Have faith my son and trust me,
In this thy darkest hour;
My love for you is greater far
Than any evil power.
"My love for man is infinite
And when I gave him birth,
I let him have dominion
Over everything on earth.
"He wields my mighty power
And my substance as he will;
He falters, falls and rises
Growing stronger ever still.
"Oh how I yearn to hold him up
When ere I see him fall;
And yet I can not take away
My greatest gift of all.
"For I gave to Man the right to will
To choose the way he'll go;
I can not interpose my love
Unless he wills it so.
"'Tis through his will and only thus
That I may end all strife;
But all who will may have my peace,
My strength, My love, My life.
"The time is near when all the world
Will see the light my son;
For everywhere on earth I hear
The prayer, 'Thy Will be done'."
With this the Father's voice was gone,
And yet I felt him near;
No longer was I filled with doubt-
The Answer now was clear.
I raised my head from where I lay
And whispered, "Lord, I see.
Forgive me for my unbelief,
Henceforth I'll trust in thee."
"Bub" Marsh December 23, 1943
Let me set the stage.
My father and his brother Charles (Uncle Bub) were as close as two people could ever be. Bub was two years younger than Dad. According to my father, Bub was one of the most beautiful, loving people who ever lived.
He asked very little for himself and spent his time caring for people. For instance when he bought a new pair of shoes, he left the old ones. He didn't need the physical things of life to be happy. He had his friends and his God. He did like writing, but he never kept the things he wrote. He gave them away.
Let's go back a few years to the early 1940's.
The war in Europe was building and we in America were doing our best to stay out of it. We had mostly dismantled our military after WWI and vowed never to get into another war like that again.
December 7th, that isolation was torn apart. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, nearly wiping out our Pacific fleet. Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.
America mobilized. And enlisted. Among these men were my father and Uncle Bub. Dad to the Navy for the sea that he loved and Bub to the air force for he loved the freedom of the skies.
The first time in their lives that they were apart. Dad's last memory of Bub was when Dad put him on a train at the Atlanta Terminal Station Bub was traveling to Sebring Florida Training facility.
Dad joined the Navy and went to South America.
Two days before Christmas in 1943, I was two months old, a bomber on a training mission was attempting a landing at Sebring. The pilot had been wraned off due to heavy ground fog. His last words were, "This is war, we have got to take chances."
Uncle Bub was dead at the age of 21.
Dad was unable to return for the funeral. He went into a fit of depression and asked himself, "Why did God let this happen?" Dad's faith was shaken for the first time in his life. This fear, this depression was made worse when one of our airplanes came down out of the night sky and strafed Dad's ship mistaking it for a Japanese destroyer. Seven of Dad's crewmates died that night.
A week after Bub's death a letter arrived, mailed that day before he died. An Answer.
I want to share this with you. And I ask you to pass it on. I think that you know soemone who needs to hear it. I do.
The Answer
I clenched my fist and shook it
At the clear blue sky above,
"Where are you God?" I shouted,
And where's your wondrous love?"
"How can you be so heartless
With your children here below?
How can you let this war rage on
And weak ones suffer so?
My anger mounted fiercely 'til
My voice would come no more;
And wearily I crumpled to
The earth's soft grassy floor
Then presently I heard a voice
A still, small voice quite near;
It called my name and whispered
Reassurance in my ear.
"Have faith my son and trust me,
In this thy darkest hour;
My love for you is greater far
Than any evil power.
"My love for man is infinite
And when I gave him birth,
I let him have dominion
Over everything on earth.
"He wields my mighty power
And my substance as he will;
He falters, falls and rises
Growing stronger ever still.
"Oh how I yearn to hold him up
When ere I see him fall;
And yet I can not take away
My greatest gift of all.
"For I gave to Man the right to will
To choose the way he'll go;
I can not interpose my love
Unless he wills it so.
"'Tis through his will and only thus
That I may end all strife;
But all who will may have my peace,
My strength, My love, My life.
"The time is near when all the world
Will see the light my son;
For everywhere on earth I hear
The prayer, 'Thy Will be done'."
With this the Father's voice was gone,
And yet I felt him near;
No longer was I filled with doubt-
The Answer now was clear.
I raised my head from where I lay
And whispered, "Lord, I see.
Forgive me for my unbelief,
Henceforth I'll trust in thee."
"Bub" Marsh December 23, 1943
