Buzz's Bedtime Stories: Returning Home

I stayed and sat on a concrete pillar, my feet dangling right over the waves, and stared at an almost full moon, an occasional shooting star, sucking on a beer. The only sounds were the waves, the only lights sparsely populated the island behind me. 

I thought about the Marine I’d brought with me. Why, of all places, would he want to be laid to rest here? I thought about the battles that must’ve been fought right where I was sitting. And I thought about the man’s military service and what it must’ve meant to him. To be so committed to a time and a place, that he told his family his plans more than 50 years ago. Incredible. 

Under the stars in a sky that seemed to go forever, I thought about how small and trivial I was in God’s plan. Yet, here I was, firmly implanted in the life and experience of this stranger. A man so driven, that he was being buried 7,000 miles away from home. 

But I felt like I knew him and understood him. And I was humbled to have been blessed with the opportunity to bring him “home.”