June 18th: From Okinawa to the Green Zone

Today I am thinking about the Marines.

On June 18, 1945, the Battle of Okinawa was winding toward its terrible conclusion. Young Marines were still fighting, still advancing, still discovering that courage is not the absence of fear but the decision to keep moving anyway. When Army General Buckner was killed, Marine General Roy Geiger stepped forward and took command. Semper Fi in action.

Today Okinawa is known as a Blue Zone, a place where people live long lives. Imagine that. One of the bloodiest battlefields in history has become a place associated with longevity, gardens, grandparents, and community. God has a way of growing flowers where men once planted bullets.

As a kid, I spent a summer around Camp Pendleton, playing Marine and learning close-order drill from the sons of enlisted Marines. I was pretty good at “About Face!” though my military career never advanced much beyond that. My cousin James Hight served during World War II, and my beloved wife Loretta served as a Navy Hospital Corpsman during the Persian Gulf era. She taught me that not all wounds are visible and not all heroes carry rifles.

On this June 18th, Marines are still standing watch around the world. Some are in danger tonight. Let’s pray they don’t have to land on another hostile shore. Let’s pray wisdom gets there before the Marines do.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

That’s a Marine verse if you think about it.

Every Marine I ever knew was looking for peace. Not because they were afraid to fight, but because they understood the cost of fighting.

Maybe that’s what we’re all looking for—a Green Zone. Not the military kind. A kingdom kind. The place Jesus described in the Sermon on the Mount. A place where mercy triumphs over revenge, where neighbors love one another, where enemies become friends, and where God’s will is done “on earth as it is in heaven.”

John 3:16 begins, “For God so loved the world…”

Not just America.
Not just Marines.
Not just Christians.

The world.

That’s a pretty good mission statement for all of us.

Semper Fidelis.

And may God bless the Marines, the Navy, the veterans of World War II, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, and every generation that has stood the watch so the rest of us could sleep. From Needles Branch of the San Bernardino County Library at the end of the Veterans Memorial Highway to Nevada, Blessings…

— Charlie Wear