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through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
    —Galatians 5:5–6

J ANUARY 28
    Children
    Norman English was seven years old in August 1940 and lived adjacent to an RAF base. Bombs fell on and around the base often as the anti-aircraft guns returned fire. To a child it was very exciting:
We used to sit on the fence for a grandstand view of the action! Until the adults came on the scene and sent us down to the shelter. I remember vividly, the vapour trails in the sky and watching dogfights in the sunny clear skies during the Battle of Britain. During the war living where we did, we were bombed, parachute land mined, aerial torpedoed, doodle bugged, and finally V2 rockets. Some of my school chums and their parents were killed.
One aircraft machine gunned our road then dropped a bomb which blew up the gas main, and destroyed Banfields the greengrocers on the corner, and smash(ed) the water main with the huge fire of the gas main and with the water filling both sides of the road and flooding the gutters.
It was not long after the all clear was sounded that all the children in the road were paddling along the gutters and towing their toy boats behind them! All this within 20 minutes or so of being bombed and machine gunned. 41
    God bless the little children. I am sure that the parents of these were gratified to see them acting their age even under the direst of circumstances. Jesus also admired the openness and honesty of children, and, in fact, stated that only those like children would be able to enter his kingdom. By this he meant that we all should cultivate a childlike wonder at the world and ability to accept simple truths. Jesus’ message is the ultimate in simplicity. Most children understand it immediately. We can’t work our way to God. God’s grace is a gift.
I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
    —Matthew 18:3–4
     
     

Watching dogfights high in the sky. (Harry S. Truman Library)
     
     

Fighting fires during the London blitz. (National Archives)

J ANUARY 29
    A Nation Prays
    Forty days after the German invasion of France and Holland it began to appear that all was lost. The French army was largely routed. The noose was tightening at Dunkirk. Panic was beginning to ripple through Great Britain at the specter of her army being annihilated on the beaches of France. In utter desperation the church leaders of England, with the support of King George, many political leaders, and much of the nation’s press, called for a National Day of Prayer on May 26. On that Sunday church attendance mushroomed as thousands flocked to the altar, turning to God in the hour of their greatest trial.
    As we know in retrospect, these prayers did not go unanswered. Hitler’s panzer divisions continued to hold back from an assault on the beaches at Dunkirk. Amazingly, the weather on the French coast and English Channel seemed to be finely tuned to benefit the desperate soldiers on the beaches. Somehow the Royal Air Force stemmed the tide of the Luftwaffe. Many years later the Reverend Clive Duncan of St. Mary’s Church delivered a sermon about these events:
There were two phases to the Battle of Britain. One was the Military side and the other was the Spiritual phase… the Germans initiated the Battle of Britain in order to clean the RAF out of the air. However, they lost the battle not only because of the RAF’s defence of the skies over London but also because they could not break down the courage and resolve of the civilian population. It took Christian courage in both phases to face the battle and to win. 42
    If there ever were a time for people to quake with fear, this would have been it. But regardless of