Security Can Take Flight...

   It was 40 years ago, in 1975, that the US abandoned South Vietnam to the North. I remember the events, sort of, but was reminded of the times through a PBS special a few days back. I confess that, at the time, I did not pay it a great deal of thought. We had lived through the War in Vietnam through the 60s and early 70s, with all of its turmoil at home and overseas, and I suspect that I just wanted it behind me, so I could focus on family, home and job. At least the nightly news would not be full of that war.

   After the US forces left South Vietnam after the cease fire, the North invaded and swept down the country until the only safe area was around the capital city of Saigon, and that area was shrinking fast. Citizens fled the oncoming tide and came to the capital, where the Americans still had a presence. Many of those who fled south ahead of the advancing armies, had ties to the US forces and government and would face an uncertain future with the communists in charge.

   Two images stand out in my mind from the TV documentary:

      1. US personnel finding ways to get civilians out of the country without, and sometimes contrary, to orders from higher ups in the chain of command. This as the situation continued to disintegrate.

      2. The scramble at the US Embassy in the last few hours before all the American persons left. The lines of men and women and families, hoping and praying for a spot on one of the copters that might get them to safety.

   These civilians had trusted in the US Government. That government was their security, and, as some watched at the end, that security was flying away.

   While the world gave a sigh of relief, that peace, however defined, had come to that war-torn area, I imagine there were those still in Saigon, that were flooded with doubt about their future under the new rulers, and, possibly a lot of anger toward their former trusted friends.

   Each one of us looks for some type of security. Money, position, government, friends or whatever, but the only true hope is in God, who has it all under His control.

   We could all look up into the sky one day and see that copter with all our security, flying off into the dusk.

   Then where would we be?