Roy

            He was a soldier in The War to End All Wars, also known as the Great War. There was a sudden flash, then nothing.

            Later, during a lull in the battle, his dog tag was picked up to turn it in. Really only a boy. Never having a chance to have a life of his own. His family was notified. They had a funeral and his whole family came. Another tragedy of war. One of our best lost to his family, his friends, his world.

            But, wait! Two days after the battle a clean up squad came through to pick up the bodies. “Hey! This one’s alive!”

            A rush to get him to the field hospital. Medics scrambling, struggling to keep him alive. The unconscious body responding slowly. No one knew who he was. The soldier who found him stayed with him as much as he could. He felt responsible for this young man who had suffered such a traumatic abdominal wound that survival would be a miracle. Finally, consciousness returning slowly, Roy was able to tell them who he was. A message was sent to the family telling them that in spite of the previous message, their son was still alive.

            Roy’s father sent a gold watch as a token of appreciation to the man who found him and saved his life.

            After Roy came back home, he met my grandfather who was starting a bakery. Roy worked with him until my grandfather died. Then he worked with my father. Through the depression, World War II, and the Korean War. When I was twelve, I started working at the bakery. It was there that I met and learned to respect even love this man who taught me what he could about baking. I worked with a man who died in World War I, forty years after he died and was resurrected.

            Why did God save this young man? Yes, he became an excellent baker, but then after forty years, how could he not. Yes, he was a good man, but there were many good men who died that same day right beside Roy. The field was littered with their bodies.

And, God speaks to me:

          “Do not question my choices. I have a purpose for him. You cannot know how far reaching my choices are. Sometimes I may save one who seems to you to be good, sometimes I may save one who seems to you to be evil. It is not for you to know.

            I am glad Roy lived long enough so I could know him. I benefitted from knowing him. Perhaps Roy’s survival was so I could use him in this book. I think his purpose was greater than that. He married, had a family, and lived his own life separate from me. I cannot even guess all the purposes for this life that could have ended more than twenty years before I was born. We should not try to second guess God.