A Soldiers Faith

TGIF - Today God is First... so in keeping with that, I wanted to share a story a soldier recently shared with me. One I feel is totally blog worthy and one I want to post here so I may go back and read it time to time. Here it is...

Occasionally when one of the doctors get behind in our office, they will intercom me and ask me to go back to the exam room and finish up the chart and bring the patient out for glasses, rather than them making the longggggg walk up to the optical area with the patient.
Well one of these times, I was able to get in on the end of the conversation between the doctor and the patient. This patient had been a soldier, and Dr. T was thanking him for his service. The man said "So many things I fought for back then, people don't even care about now." Immediate Discount in his future! In all seriousness, I still get tears just thinking about it.
For some reason I was flipping through his chart as his name didn't sound familiar to me and he was a new patient to us. I noticed on his Patient Information Sheet what his wifes name was. Then it hit me!
Jack has the most wonderful and kind Aunt and Uncle ever. His Uncle passed away last Halloween and he is forever missed. Anyway, they had best friends that I had heard about pretty much everytime we visited with them. The kind that are there for you, through thick and thin. The kind that are like family... perhaps even closer at times. The kind of friends you have laughed with, shared joy with, overcome fears and triumphs with, the kind you mourn with. You get the picture... Lifelong friends.
This man was one of the friends! So I introduced myself, although, I'm sure we'd met in the past. Sometimes you forget! So in the midst of trying on glasses and such, we had the best conversation. He asked me if I'd heard about the time that he and Uncle J. were in Japan and I said I didn't think I had. He went on to say that he was in the Marines... (I think) and he was stationed in Japan. He had went to a popular hang out and decided to leave and head back to his quarters. As he was telling the story he said he could still remember the scenery of the walk... he was headed up an incline and he saw this tall lanky dude coming at him. He thought to himself it sure resembled Uncle J. but he was in the Navy, so surely not.
But guess what! It was! He said both of them, given a choice, would've chose to see their wives, but God knew what they needed. They needed their friend. The one who knew how the other feels, the one that can sympathize, the one going through the same struggles. He told me... That's how I know there's a God. From that night. Stuck in Japan. Away from his family. Feeling lonely. Feeling sad. God sent him his best friend.
How great is our God to pull that 'ole Navy ship into harbour at the exact place where the Marines were, 1/2 a world away, put these two friends on the exact same street at the exact same time! Only God...
TODAY! God is first.