GOD'S POWER VS. OUR POWER
"Millions for defense and not a penny for tribute." I learned what that quote meant while in the Army. I was assigned, as were all junior officers In the 82d Aiborne Division, to escort Generals and Colonels from the parking lot to a set of bleachers located in a remote area of Fort Bragg. That day, I would witness a firepower demonstration of the latest bombs and weaponry invented to search for and destroy the enemy in combat.
For two hours, I witnessed nearly a million dollars blown to bits by a fireworks display designed to kill hundreds with jet planes dropping bombs with pinpoint accuracy. Just as an announcer read from a script that jet planes at the 12 o’clock position would be overhead, jets appeared over the horizon in perfect synchronization with the announcer’s words.
Bomber jets, surface to air missiles, handheld weapons, tanks--all the latest military hardware showed how death and destruction could be unharnessed in seconds. In one pass, across a field that was about a mile from the bleachers, jets dropped canisters of a jelly-like substance called Napalm. As soon as the napalm splattered over the ground, it burst into flames. Acres of ground caught fire and burned to a crisp. Anyone on the ground would have been burned alive.
That’s how the world spells power--weapons of mass destruction that can kill and maim hundreds and even thousands at a time.
This Christmas, like every Christmas since WWII, the nations of the world are held together by the mutual fear that an atomic or chemical holocaust could destroy us and the earth. No matter how technologically advanced and educated man has become, he still solves his problems with death and destruction. Peace on earth is still a wishful thought.
How different was the power demonstration God displayed on the first Christmas.