Thursday; October 24

          I am a little too young to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis firsthand, but it changed world history.  For a couple of weeks of October, 1962 the world stood on the brink of an international crisis and the potential of the next world war.  The governments of the United States, the Soviet Union and Cuba postured with each other over the presence of weapons in the Western Hemisphere (more specifically, in the Caribbean region, just a few dozen miles off of the coast of the United States).  The history books and personal reflections of the time reinforce just how close we came to hostilities that had the potential to be catastrophic. 
As I think back on this time in history I am reminded of a few life-lessons:
1.  Life is tenuous.  The earth’s well-being was jeopardized by this event and it should be a reminder of how fragile life is.  I don’t know the amount of devastation that would have been wreaked on the world, but lives would have been lost.  Let’s not take life (or peace) for granted.  Who knows what might happen tomorrow – globally or personally.
2.  Peace is possible.  It is understandable to look at the tenseness of the situation and fear the potential outcome, but there is a positive that comes out of these days in October.  When people are willing to come together for the betterment of mankind, things can be worked out in a peaceful way.  Let’s never give up on seeking peace – in our lives or in our world.
3.  The world will eventually be destroyed.  Anyone who is a student of the Bible has probably come across the promise that God will (eventually) destroy this physical world.  I don’t know if it will come about through international or spiritual hostilities, but it will happen.  We might not be able to comprehend the end of time as we know it, but we’d better be prepared for it. 
          Peace and cooler heads prevailed in 1962.  Let’s be thankful that it did and mindful of the lessons it can teach us.
          Think About It!

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