Our Faith Is Complete
George Syer was a staff sergeant with the 96th
Division. He had only ten days with his newborn son, John Paul, before shipping out to the Pacific in July 1944. Trying to be optimistic, but fearing the worst, he wrote a letter to John Paul to tell his son that he loved him and to give him a future understanding of his father’s beliefs:
Two months have gone now since you were born. Mother has since sent pictures that I treasure… Yes two months, and tonight I am on the threshold of another adventure of life. Tomorrow we board ship to go overseas. I do not fear to go knowing that I too must share the responsibility of fighting for my country. I have no desire to kill, son, only to save life, but there are times like these that one can’t understand, but seek to serve God and also my country seems the only true course to take.
I go with faith that the Lord shall bring me back safe from the conflict. However should the Lord decide that my service has ended, and I fall on foreign soil, my faith will be satisfied to its fullest by Him who is wise and better than I could ask or expect.
The answer to our faith is always complete, even though the answer is not according to your own will. A paradox, yes but that is God’s privilege and power.355
Fortunately, John Paul was reunited with his father after the war and, so, had more than this letter to guide him through his formative years. The letter is nevertheless a powerful insight into one man’s beliefs. The phrase, “answer to our faith” is thought-provoking and worth pondering in itself. I take it to mean the final realization of the truth of what we believe, that is, the realization we receive when we actually meet our Savior in heaven. How and when this occurs is not up to us, although we know that the answer we receive when that time comes will certainly be full and complete, even beyond what we expect. The paradox lies in the fact that we who are worth so little ultimately receive so much.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
—Hebrews 11:1