Gtcotr/ws012721
My father, the second born of 10 children, was raised during the Great Depression. The years following the stock market crash of 1929 devastated American businesses and industry and completely destroyed the national economy. It was a very difficult period of time and families were faced with horrible decisions.
I’ve heard the story of my dad being encouraged to leave home and fend for himself when he was only 10 years old because there was just not enough in the house to take care of everyone. He had to quit school but was a strong young man and he made it ok and held no grudge against anyone for the decisions that had to be made during those tough times.
I attended elementary, Jr high, and graduated from high school at James Bowie in that same little rural northeast Texas community where my dad was born. When I was a kid, I’d hear the old timers tell how James (Jim) Bowie camped right on the spot where that school was built when he was on his way to defend the Alamo in the 1830’s. What a story. But that was not all the school was known for.
The school was built out of rocks which were dug from the surrounding land.
The man tasked with running the WPA was a very good friend of President Roosevelt named Harry Hopkins. Hopkins was Roosevelt’s chief assistant throughout his presidential years and was called the assistant president by many. When it came to helping people in need Harry Hopkins had deep convictions and a long-standing history.
During the early years of World War II, Americans were fairly set against getting involved. The news from countries directly impacted by the aggression of Japan and Germany was terrible but still distant to so many.
In 1941 President Roosevelt sent his trusted assistant Harry Hopkins to meet with Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Hopkins saw the devastation of the country in the wake of the constant bombings and how close the Nazi Regime was to victory over all Europe. Hopkins saw a land and a people who were tired and weary but who refused to surrender to what seemed overwhelming and inevitable.
On the last night of their meetings, in the cold wintery late January 1941 weather, Churchill and Hopkins were given a dinner in Glasgow by the Regional Director of Scotland. Churchill, ever the fearless leader, sat knowing the future of Great Britain and the world was hanging in the balance. After dinner Harry Hopkins offered his parting words.
“I suppose you wish to know what I am going to say to President Roosevelt on my return. Well, I’m going to quote you one verse from that Book of Books … ‘Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.'” Then he added very quietly: “‘Even to the end.'”
Observers present saw Prime Minister Winston Churchill in tears. He knew what it meant.
During the 1970’s I was fortunate to serve in the USAF for 6 years. During my enlistment I was stationed in both England and Germany for over half of that time. While there I took the opportunity to attend university in both England and Germany. Because of the proximity and access to so many wonderful sites, I concentrated on English literature while living in England and on history, 1865 to present, while living in Germany.
Many of my classes included weekend field trips to the battlefields, memorials, and monuments in Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Austria, all within a day’s drive. Visits to historical WWII battlefields most often included a visit to the memorial cemeteries where those who gave their lives were buried. Memorial cemeteries dedicated to the American Soldier, remembering the thousands upon thousands of the best and the bravest young men gave their all on foreign soil to defend the freedoms of others who could not defend or deliver themselves, dot the landscape and tell the story of the real cost of covenant.
Covenant, like the covenant Ruth made with Naomi, details the duties of a shared destiny. Ruth was a Gentile who made covenant with a Jew when Naomi had nothing in return to give. And we know how that worked out.
Without the help of America, Great Britain would not have won the war and perhaps would have even ceased to exist at all. Harry Hopkins, assistant to President Roosevelt, understood The duties of a shared destiny and he helped to steer our nation into a covenant with Great Britain knowing the cost yet embracing the duty.
I have seen the results of this covenant with my own eyes and stood in the midst of those white rows of gravestones. Men who never made it home, and knew they would not … men who were buried beside others also gave their lives defending the shared destiny we now enjoy.
Let’s take a moment and revisit this passage in Ruth before we pray for our nation and the nations of the world this evening. Truly, we all have a shared destiny and if our nation, or the nations of the world hurt, hunger, or harbor injustices, it will do us no good to turn a deaf ear or a blind eye to that need - Even though the costs be ever so great.
Ruth 1 NKJV
16 But Ruth said: “Entreat me
not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever
you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall
be my people, And your God, my God.
17 Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.”
Contracts are made when there is promise of gain. Covenants are made when there is nothing to gain and everything to give.
·
Consider the cost of the covenants you make.
o More than a kiss –
like Orpha …
§ There are “kissers”
and there are “cleavers.”
o More than words – not
just an “I do” … Let’s see if you did …
§ Stories will be told
about those who did …
·
Work hard to defend the destiny you share with others.
o Don’t deny your
family.
o Don’t devalue your
friendships.
o Don’t destroy your
future.
·
Appreciate and respect those who stand beside you.
o Be thankful and show
it.
o Never forget the price
others paid for you to have a life.
o Someone else shared the cost for your greatest opportunity …
Let’s
pray for our families, our nation, and the world.
