D-Day in the Flint Hills

I had a spiritual experience early this morning as I cruised home on I-70 this morning from beautiful Bethany College in Lindsborg. I woke up knowing it was the anniversary of D-Day, and that so I said a prayer of thanksgiving as I drove past Abilene, home of WWII Allied Commander General Eisenhower. 'Ike' was the humble farmtown-boy–turned-soldier who had to make the scary call to invade German-occupied Europe on the stormy June 6 morning 65 years ago today. I remembered how Ike had delivered a brief but stirring departure address to the hundreds of thousands, and he had two speeches written once the outcome was determined--one if it succeeded, one if it failed.

As I drove past Abilene into the Flint Hills (or at least the stretch of I-70 that slashes through them), I remembered why I love the Kansas landscape so much: It’s the beautiful rock walls that line the road where the highway slices the undulating, grassy hills. I love how the hills are boring, plain and simple—- until they get cut open for the roads. Then with the flowers, rock-striations, plant-outcroppings, and more, those brutal dynamite-made scars end up being the most beautiful places on the road.

As a wise man said, “There’s no point in pain if you’re not going to learn from it.” As I thought today of the horrific carnage on Normandy that began the end of WWII, I remembered the many interviews of quiet, resilient, and deeply appreciative old men I’ve seen on TV. They're men who are the remaining heroes of a war that shaped the world like few others, men who came from humble roots to make the world bloom more honorably for generations to come, and yet, they're remarkably indistinguishable from the rest of their generation. You couldn’t pick any of them out in a crowd—they look like anyone else’s great-grandpas, for the most part. But like the beautiful Flint Hills that rise above from the Kaw watershed, those men are incredibly remarkable, beautiful, and world-changing--in the shadow of their far-off scars.

As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ...for I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus. Gal 6:14-17