Last week during a vacation trip to South Carolina, Gloria and I stood by my parents’ grave. Their horizontal gravestone offers a brief, but important testimony about these two people. Concerning my father it says, “Pastor, Chaplain, World War II.” Under mother’s name it says, “Devoted wife and teacher.” Then it says, “Loving parents of…” and their four children’ are listed. At the bottom is that great final verse of I Corinthians 13, “Now abide these three – faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.” Beneath that verse is the symbol of the cross. Of course, those few words can’t tell the whole story about these two people. But the essence of their life and faith is declare there. It is a fitting memorial.

Somewhere, amid the shifting sands of the Middle East, was an…