When a Loved One Serves in Harm’s Way

When a son, daughter, or other loved one tells you they are going to join the fire department, police, or military, it is easy to have a flood of fear fill your heart. One does not need to go into detail about the horrors of war and service in dangerous situations. From being killed, wounded, or even tortured as a prisoner, the worries of a parent or friend or family member can be overwhelming.
In truth, as the hymn puts it, we all walk in danger all the way. Satan pursues us all. The devil ambushes us. We have to contend with our own sinful nature. God allows crosses and trials to enter our days. Death itself pursues us. The dangers in our own homes in America or on the battlefield far across the world are essentially the same. We all walk in danger all the way. However, when some new danger appears to us it can strike great fear and bring much new worry. And when the danger is being shot at, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), or other hostile threats in the line of duty, it really gets our attention.
Our Lord has given us the safety we so desperately need. For our bodies, He provides not only our daily needs but also protection. These petitions of the Lord’s Prayer speak of God’s providence of the body: “Give us this day our daily bread” and “Deliver us from evil.” We can have peace knowing that God cares for us at all times and in all dangers: Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you (1 Peter 5:6–7).
If our Lord wills that we suffer harm we are still always in His loving care. He will give us the strength and patience to endure what He allows to come our way. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons (Hebrews 12:7–8).
If death should come, the same comfort that is for a civilian is there for the soldier: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25–26). Our Lord Jesus has brought you safely into His Kingdom by grace through Holy Baptism.
The soldier, fireman, or security personnel has the Gospel of perfect safety: Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:14–17). When they are attacked spiritually by the enemy, they are kept safe in Jesus’ Word.
Martin Luther offers this prayer in his tract “Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved”:
Heavenly Father, here I am, according to your divine will, in the external work and service of my lord (nation/government), which I owe you first and then to my lord for your sake. I thank your grace and mercy that you have put me into a work which I am sure is not sin, but right and pleasing obedience to your will. But because I know and have learned from your gracious word that none of our good works can help us and that no one is saved as a soldier but only as a Christian, therefore, I will not in any way rely on my obedience and work, but place myself freely at the service of your will. I believe with all my heart that only the innocent blood of your dear Son, my Lord Jesus Christ, redeems and saves me, which he shed for me in obedience to your holy will. In this faith I will live and die, fight and do everything else. Dear Lord God the Father, preserve and strengthen this faith in me by your Spirit. Amen. (Luther’s Works, Vol. 46)
So if we are in our homes, serving in our cities, or far away across the sea, we are all in battle and in danger; but we walk with Jesus as our walk is heavenward all the way.
Robert A. Harting is pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Indianola, Iowa.