Last week, an American hero died – Louis Zamperini. You may not recognize the name. I didn’t until a couple of years ago.
For Father’s Day my daughter, Jennifer, got me an ebook for my Kindle – Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption. It is the story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner and hero of WW2.
Zamperini was a bombadier on a B-24 airplane over the Pacific. He was involved in several bombing missions in which his plane suffered from severe shelling. His plane crashed into the Pacific and he drifted for 47 days among sharks until he was picked up by Japanese and held in various prison camps under extreme torture and abuse. One statistic haunted me. Of the 132,000 POWs held by the Japanese in WW2, nearly 36,000 died, more than one in every four. American POWs were treated worse – 37% died (compared to only 1% of Americans held by Nazis and Italians died).
Zamperini came home, but the war stayed in his heart. Anger and alcohol almost did what the war couldn’t do – kill him. But he turned to Christ at a Billy Graham Crusade and his life was changed. The love and forgiveness he received from God gave him the power to forgive his Japanese captors.
His story is soon to come out in a movie. But he has gone to his eternal reward. Take a minute and thank God for those who have sacrificed for our freedom. Especially Jesus Christ, who gave His life to pay for our sins and purchase an eternal home in Heaven.