At the tender age of eight, my tiny family (just Mom, Dad and me) was uprooted. Everything that was familiar to me was about to change. It was the 50’s and the Korean “conflict” had begun. It was wartime.
My father was being recalled to military duty and would soon be stationed in California at Travis Air Force Base. But first he was required to do six weeks of basic training in Montgomery, Alabama. This meant the longest road trip of my young life – new territory from WA to AL to CA.
After days of monster mountains, curly roads, pancake-flat fields and pencil-thin hi-ways, we finally reached Chicago and turned south into unknown territory – south of the Mason-Dixon line. No one thought to tell me some things might be different. After all, we were still in the same country.
First stop, a small town in Tennessee where College of Medical Evangelists (now LLU) classmates of my parents lived. We needed a day off from traveling and they had kids my age, so I was happy with instant friends. In fact, they even invited me to go to school with them the next day to meet their friends at their local SDA elementary school. Great! More kids!
The little third-grade class smiled and all said, “HI.” I was just any other brown-haired, hazel-eyed, white kid among many of the same. But as the day wore on the tone seemed to change. No more, “Hi’s.” No more smiles. Even the friends who had brought me to school, stayed their distance. I was soon left totally alone. I didn’t understand.
At the end of the day as school was being dismissed, a small angry-looking group of students slowly approached me, arms folded tightly across their chests. One boy, seeming to represent everyone, stepped forward, pursed his lips and boldly announced,
“IF THIS WAS WARTIME, WE’D KILL YOU.”
I was stunned. I had never heard hate before. Why was it aimed at me? Where did it come from? What had I done? I didn’t know.
I kept my tears hidden deeply inside me until I reached our friend’s home and the comfort of my parents' arms. Only then did the tears flow. I was in the naive age of still believing in near-perfect parental guidance – that no parent, much less a Christian parent, would ever teach a child to say or do anything that was clearly wrong.
Prejudice is not a natural part of childish thought. Friendship among children, when allowed to grow naturally, flourishes. But on that day, I learned that hatred is taught. I faced third grade children who had already learned a strange history making it ok to kill me—if it was wartime.
I soon learned it wasn’t the color of my hair or eyes or skin that caused the hate. It was the mere inflection of my voice that enraged them. I was different – from somewhere else.
As we continued the rest of our road trip south, Mom and Dad filled me with reassurances that no one was out to kill me. Just what I needed to hear. Praise the Lord for Godly parents.
More importantly, Mom reminded me of a verse she had already taught me about the importance of treating everyone with kindness. Christ said:
“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye maybe the children of your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:44-45 KJV
Then Dad introduced me to a new (to me) text:
“Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” Philippians 2:1-3 KJV
Yes, there was wartime in Korea many years ago and wartime even in that tiny southern school yard. But we, at age eight or as adults, need not remain at war. “Loving our enemies”and being “of one accord” is a choice we each must make, no matter what we have been taught in the past.
Choosing to esteem others better than ourselves is an action depicting a Christ-like character, one which can only move us closer to our eternally peaceful home where there will be no more wartime.
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Janet Lundeen Neumann
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer" (Psalm 19:14).