Faith

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Unconditional Love
© 2011

by

Stephen A. Peterson


“Ever since I’ve been in the Air Force, I’ve had nothing but problem after problem,” Air Force Staff Sergeant Robyn Byrd lamented to a fellow airwoman. “I’d just like one year without having to look back on something to mess with my happiness and my life. Where is God when you need Him?”

At the time, Staff Sergeant Byrd’s five year old daughter was in the hospital having broken her arm going down a slide at school. Her unit First Sergeant’s wife had lost her teaching job in the local school district due to state mandated budget cuts due to lows in the collection of tax revenue. Though everyone knew they have one of the very best First Sergeants in the Air Force, Staff Sergeant Byrd as well as the rest of the unit understood that this change greatly altered the functioning of his family’s household income and ability to function. Meanwhile, a tornado destroyed many homes and businesses just outside the Air Force Base but did not touch the base. The event was amazing if not a miracle.

Following the tornado, Staff Sergeant Byrd seemed to have received what she came to understand as perhaps a divine response to her earlier question. After her daughter’s surgery and while she was recovering in the post operation room, the surgeon sat down with Staff Sergeant Byrd and her husband to inform them their daughter had a hidden tumor that somehow went undetected. In the doctor’s opinion, the tumor could have resulted in a very serious problem for their daughter perhaps her death. Though the surgeon did everything she could to avoid indicating that the break was the event revealing the tumor and saving her life, Staff Sergeant could not walk away drawing this conclusion.

The Byrd’s daughter was expected to make a full recovery with the tumor completely removed. So that in a matter of months, their daughter would be able to do what she had been doing prior to her accident. In the silence of her office, Staff Sergeant Byrd contemplated the meaning of the recent events affecting her, her family and unit. The accident, though stressful and painful, seems to have saved her daughter’s life. “Maybe,” she thought, “God has sent me problems to strengthen my spirit and His way of keeping me from turning away from His unconditional love.”

What do you think?

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