No Distant Unknown
Pvt. 1st Class Albert Kishler fought with the 9th Army in Europe. In December 1944 he wrote to a friend to describe his thoughts during combat. Like many others who faced constant fear he felt God’s presence. Sunday—God’s Day. The man who said that there are no atheists in foxholes had hit the nail on the head. When the sun goes down and darkness steals in, life to the infantrymen becomes nothing more than a gust of wind. The nights are long, fifteen hours and cold and you are invariably dug in the middle of a sugar beet field—Germany is all beet fields, orchards, and towns. To get back to the foxhole, there you are—a grenade in one hand, more handy, and your other hand fingering your BAR [Browning Automatic Rifle]—it’s you and good old Mother Earth and God. And when the time comes that you leave that hole and charge across several hundred yards of enemy territory with machine guns burning, 88’s and mortars thinning your numbers, God is never forgotten. To us, death is no distant unknown…445
When we live in relative prosperity and good health, death can be a remote possibility—in fact, it can be a distant unknown. Unfortunately, as we go about the routine of our lives, God himself can become a distant unknown. Albert Kishler’s story reminds us how this can change in a life-and-death situation. With such a reminder, we know we should not wait for a crisis to think seriously about our relationship to God. The goal of our Christian walk should be to grow constantly closer to him through daily prayer, study, and worship. God wants us to share our hopes and to give our fears to him, whether great or small. As our relationship with him grows and deepens, his presence will be an immediate comfort to us on a daily basis and in the crises that we must inevitably face.
And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
—Deuteronomy 10:12