The Only Clean Thing
The German attacks were almost continuous. The remnants of a British airborne unit was holding on to its tenuous position in a battered school building as casualties mounted and ammunition dwindled. Their mission was to defend the eastern side of the Rhine River bridge at Arnhem until relieved. Hours of waiting had turned into days, as the relief column was hopelessly delayed in heavy fighting. Meanwhile, an officer in the school building described the scene:
By morning I had to issue more Bensedrine to face the dawn attack. No one had now had any sleep for seventy-two hours. The water had given out twelve hours ago and food twenty-four hours ago… The men themselves were the grimmest sight of all: eyes red-rimmed for want of sleep, their faces, blackened by fire-fighting, wore three days’ growth of beard. Many of them had minor wounds, and their clothes were cut away to expose a roughly fixed, blood-soaked field dressing. They were huddled in twos and threes, each little group manning positions that required twice that number. The only clean things in the school were the weapons. These shone brightly in the morning sun, with their gleaming clips of ammunition beside them.475
Clean weapons shining in the midst of a dirty and chaotic battle scene presents a powerful image. It reminds us of God’s armor, designed to protect us from the evils of the world. Although mostly defensive in nature, it also includes one powerful offensive weapon: “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”(Ephesians 6:17). When this weapon is kept burnished through constant study and application, we are prepared for the spiritual battles and chaos of this world.
The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
—Romans 13:12