A busy, harried career woman is forced to pull her car into a quiet and peaceful military cemetery when she has mechanical trouble. After calling for help, she decides to leave the hot car and sit on a bench beneath a shade tree, overlooking the neat rows of crosses. As she waits impatiently, fiddling with her PDA and laptop computer, she fails to notice an elderly woman who appears from nowhere and is suddenly sitting beside her.
The old woman - who claims to be an angel - begins a conversation, ignoring the businesswoman's rude lack of interest, and then proceeds to tell her - without even asking if she wants to hear it - what turns out to be an amazing story. It is the tale of a young soldier and his journey from an idyllic small-town home to a World War II battlefield on an island in the South Pacific. The soldier writes a long letter every day to the girl back home that he pledged to marry when he returned from the war. He talks of his desire to raise a family, to pursue a career in the ministry, to inspire people with his message. Then, in a heroic act, the young soldier saves the lives of several of his buddies but, in the process, he is seriously wounded and loses his eyesight.
When the young soldier returns home, he is bitter and refuses to marry his sweetheart. He claims he does not want to saddle her with the responsibility of caring for a cripple for the rest of his life. She tries to share with him her outlook on life, her belief that God uses such tragedies to direct us toward achieving greater things in our ride through life, but the soldier refuses to listen and shuts her out of his dark, hopeless world.
However, God does have bigger plans for both the soldier and the woman. She and several of the men whose lives he saved - and who overcame their own injuries to excel - help lead the wounded warrior back onto the path. The soldier overcomes his depression and blindness to become a great teacher, an inspiration to the ill, handicapped, and hurting all over the world.
Then, captivated by the story of the soldier's ride, a final series of revelations - some from the "angel," and some from two other mysterious storytellers who join the businesswoman - shows the busy executive that her stop at the soldiers' cemetery that day was no mere coincidence. The mystery of how these people and their fates are intertwined will offer hope for those who are hurting or who have loved ones of their own fighting a distant war.
The story is a salute to veterans everywhere, regardless the war, and the sacrifice they make for their country. However, this is primarily the story of a love that not even a war could kill and about how faith can help overcome the roadblocks we all encounter in life's unpredictable ride.
Genre: Inspirational
The old woman - who claims to be an angel - begins a conversation, ignoring the businesswoman's rude lack of interest, and then proceeds to tell her - without even asking if she wants to hear it - what turns out to be an amazing story. It is the tale of a young soldier and his journey from an idyllic small-town home to a World War II battlefield on an island in the South Pacific. The soldier writes a long letter every day to the girl back home that he pledged to marry when he returned from the war. He talks of his desire to raise a family, to pursue a career in the ministry, to inspire people with his message. Then, in a heroic act, the young soldier saves the lives of several of his buddies but, in the process, he is seriously wounded and loses his eyesight.
When the young soldier returns home, he is bitter and refuses to marry his sweetheart. He claims he does not want to saddle her with the responsibility of caring for a cripple for the rest of his life. She tries to share with him her outlook on life, her belief that God uses such tragedies to direct us toward achieving greater things in our ride through life, but the soldier refuses to listen and shuts her out of his dark, hopeless world.
However, God does have bigger plans for both the soldier and the woman. She and several of the men whose lives he saved - and who overcame their own injuries to excel - help lead the wounded warrior back onto the path. The soldier overcomes his depression and blindness to become a great teacher, an inspiration to the ill, handicapped, and hurting all over the world.
Then, captivated by the story of the soldier's ride, a final series of revelations - some from the "angel," and some from two other mysterious storytellers who join the businesswoman - shows the busy executive that her stop at the soldiers' cemetery that day was no mere coincidence. The mystery of how these people and their fates are intertwined will offer hope for those who are hurting or who have loved ones of their own fighting a distant war.
The story is a salute to veterans everywhere, regardless the war, and the sacrifice they make for their country. However, this is primarily the story of a love that not even a war could kill and about how faith can help overcome the roadblocks we all encounter in life's unpredictable ride.
Genre: Inspirational
Used availability for Don Keith's The Soldier's Ride