Wayfarer

As Schofield hobbles to the tree at the end of the movie 1917, the viewer can feel the ache of this traveler, who has gone through death and hell to reach his final rest. While what I write is not a review of the movie (though I 100% recommend the feature), I would like to draw a main principle from the Academy Award Winner that reflects the lives of every Christian. So, if you have not seen the movie and would like to, Spoiler Alert!!!

The movie begins with two British soldiers, whose names we learn are Lance Corporals Schofield and Blake, lying at the foot of a tree. Immediately, Blake is asked to carry a message pass the German front lines to save his brother and thousands of other men from an impending ambush. Only Schofield, Blake's friend, travels with him.

The two soldiers first make their way across No-Man's Land. Mortar craters and carcasses of fellow comrades and enemy soldiers litter the battlefield. The duo then clambers through the booby-trapped German trenches and comes to a small farm, a place of seeming rest. In a turn of events, attempting to save a German soldier from a burning bi-plane Blake loses his life. Now, Schofield must travel through enemy-infested towns and a blood-stained river to carry Blake's message. Though often finding a couple allies, he travels alone.

To make a long story short, Schofield does deliver the message but at a great cost. Along the way, he loses his energy, his supplies, his friend, and his hope. Only one thing keeps him going: completing the mission. Losing everything he had, the wayfarer continues until the moment his work is completed and he can finally rest.

From rest to rest, the journey of Schofield moves through pain, death, and blood, an experience with which all Christians become far too familiar. We wage war against our sin while trekking through this fallen world, hoping for the final rest of Heaven. Like Schofield, we know exactly what it is like to journey alone and have people attack and hate us because of which side we are on. Sickness and cancer overtake our bodies. Friends and family pass on. The sins we wish not to do we do; and the obedience we want to do we do not do.

But we push on. Through highs and lows, we keep on journeying. All because we know the end: that the momentary affliction in our lives is producing an "eternal weight of glory" (1 Cor. 4:17). We wayfaring strangers travel through this world alone, knowing all the toil and all the danger. But that doesn't stop us, because we are going home - to see our Father. Soon we will rest at the feet of our Savior, no longer to roam.