O Lord do not forsake me...

O Lord, do not forsake me; *be not far from me, O my God. Psalm 38.21

On this day in 1962, four children sat in front of a black and white television while their pregnant mother cried and prayed in the background as they all watched the world totter on the brink of nuclear war between the two superpowers. The children's father was a naval aviator/fighter pilot attached to the USS Essex which had been ordered to patrol the waters between Key West and Cuba because it had been discovered that Cuba housed medium-range missiles capable of striking a number of major cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C. U. S military forces were ordered to DEFCON 2, the highest military alert ever reached in the postwar era, as military commanders prepared for full-scale war with the Soviet Union. On October 25th, the children's father flew a plane like the one above off the deck of the USS Essex in preparation for what might have been that full-scale war.

The children were 6,5,3 and 1; the 5th baby was due in February. And the father was flying into war. The words from the psalmist today echo the prayers of the mother that day and unknowingly the children's prayers as well. The children were terrified mainly because their mother was terrified, but they were also aware of a protective power greater than this fear hovering around them. Still today, they remember that experience.

May these words from Psalm 38 be our prayer today as we hover on the brink of collapse of the wellbeing of our nation, as warring parties seem to be preparing for whatever conflict lies in their way towards victory.

Lord, do not forsake us, be not far from us and may the peace that passes ALL understanding be with us now and always. Amen