Eternal Furlough
"Everything's been great so far, Mom. And it ain't over yet." The New York Times ran an article about the visit of Juan Castillo to Daytona. That’s Specialist Juan Castillo, by the way. He is visiting because he is an American soldier on a 14-day furlough from Iraq. He was talking to him mom on day twelve.
The Army is hoping that the furlough, close to mid-way in a year long deployment, will make the year more tolerable. Probably won’t happen. Castillo will be happy when he can wake up in his own bed knowing that, Lord willing, he will get to do that for the rest of his life.
The quote from Castillo that opened this article reminded me of the last verse of the wonderful Christian song “Amazing Grace.” “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun; we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.”
If you ask his family, Specialist Castillo was hiding his true feelings. He wanted the furlough to be eternal. In Heaven it will be. “My sheep listen to my voice;” Jesus said. “I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27-28). That’s Life at Work!

~Richard May