Letter to MacArthur
Mail service and information from the Southwest Pacific theater was slow and sporadic. A Chicago woman, Mrs. Nels Neslund, could not get news about her wounded son, Robert, and finally went to the top for help. On January 1, 1945, she wrote a letter that was part entreaty and part prayer directly to General MacArthur:
This is the first prayer of nineteen forty five, that our boys come home safe and sound. It is written on the first minute of the new year and if God ever listened to a prayer I hope it is this one…
Please take care of my boys, let Robert get well, let him stay in the hospital till he is… and please God hold your healing hand over the mind and spirit and physical well being of all the soldiers in the Philippines and all over the world, for if each one of them has a mother or a wife whose prayer joins with mine this first hour of 1945 I am sure the strength of it, the strength of all the combined prayers of this day will be able to move mountains… 344
Unfortunately, General MacArthur’s response to this appeal is not known. He must have been moved by the eloquence of this distraught woman appealing to him and to God at the same time. She may have had little faith in the Army, but the depth of her faith in God shows through in her inspiring appeal to God and other mothers. This is the kind of faith that brings individuals and families through difficult times and enables them to deal with whatever worldly crisis besets them. God freely offers the same spiritual protection and support to his people whenever we turn to him for it.
My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
—Psalm 62:12