At
Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington DC recently the Sergeant Major of the
Army, Jack Tilley, was with a group of people visiting the wounded soldiers. He
saw a Special Forces soldier who had lost his right hand and suffered severe
wounds of his face
and side of his body. The SMA wanted to honor him and show him respect without
offending, but what can you say or do in such a situation that will encourage
and uplift?
How
do you shake the right hand of a soldier who has none? He decided to act as
though the hand was not missing and gripped the soldier’s wrist while speaking words
of comfort and encouragement to him. But there was another man in that group of
visitors who had even brought his wife with him to visit the wounded who knew
exactly what to do. This man reverently took the soldier's stump of a hand in
both of his hands, bowed at the bedside and prayed for him. When he finished the
prayer he stood up, bent over the soldier and kissed him on the head and told
him that he loved him.
What
a powerful expression of love for one of our wounded heroes! And what a
beautiful Christ-like example! What kind of a man would do such a thing?
It was the wounded man’s Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush, President of the
United States.
This
story was told by Sergeant Major Mark Tilley, at a Soldiers Breakfast
held at Red Rock, AL, and recorded by Chaplain James
Henderson, stationed there.
You may want to pass it on...the press won't.
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