Wow, what a ride! That was the way I opened my speech at the long awaited for retirement ceremony. It seems inconceivable that my military career is over. The ceremony went as planned…er, well except for a miscommunication regarding getting the laptop to the right place. As a result, the ceremony started 30 minutes late. It really didn’t bother me other than I was close to an aneurysm and my blood pressure was probably 200/100. I don’t know why it bothered me to have two generals and a command chief master sergeant sitting inside wondering why my ceremony wasn’t starting on time. 

Then of course, I got so involved in my farewell speech that I forgot to give my wife and two daughters their bouquets of roses. Leaning against the wall were the flag display boxes I had for my sons. Those flags had flown in combat aircraft over Iraq in the days following 9-1-1. For years, I had dreamed of presenting those flags at my retirement…and I forgot. That night we did the presentation at my retirement party and took pictures at that time.

Nothing ever seems to go according to plan. At least nothing goes according to plan that has a mere man as the engineer of the event. But, there is a plan that went perfectly according to plan. It was the plan of salvation that God designed as the “master-designer” before the foundation of the earth. It was the plan that would involve 3 rusty nails and a couple of sticks of wood.