When Cliff Horn, a Seabee, went to Iraq and was assigned to a special task force working with a special forces unit, communication between Caleb and his daddy all but ground to a halt.
The pictures stopped coming. The Web cam no longer brought Cliff back into Caleb’s world. When Cliff was able to call home, it was always late at night when the little boy was fast asleep.
“Kids see how we react and handle things,” said Sara. “I tried to be positive around Caleb about the deployment, but the first month that Cliff was in Iraq was really hard on him.”
In those first thirty days, Sara noticed that Caleb had two major meltdowns. He would cry despondently. “I finally sat down with him and asked if he was upset about his dad being away. He told me he had a bad dream that Daddy had been shot.”
Sara debated about what to do to make her son feel more secure. “The biggest tendency is to say, ‘Daddy is safe, he’s not going to get hurt.’ But you can’t guarantee that. I always said, ‘We know that God is looking out for Daddy, God is watching over Daddy.”
The next time Cliff called, Sara told him about Caleb’s dream and asked if there was any way he could send a picture of himself doing his job that wasn’t combat but construction. So Cliff got a photo approved by the unit of him in a bulldozer and emailed it home. Sara printed it out and had it ready when Caleb came home from school that day. Once he saw that picture, the nightmares stopped.
“We prayed for Cliff every night, but I had to be careful that I didn’t make promises I that I questioned if I could keep,” said Sara. “We’re at war. It’s a great time to emphasize the importance of prayer and trusting God, knowing God is in control no matter what.”
God doesn’t promise his children that life will be without pain, either. But he does tell us he won’t let us go through it without him.
Lord, help me find comfort in your promises.
“God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” (Hebrews 13:5)