Hope

In The Romance of the Last Crusade, British Major Vivian Gilbert told of his advance toward Jerusalem during World War I. He stopped one night to visit a field hospital. He stayed by the bedside of a dying soldier, barely nineteen. He told their location. They were at Emmaus. Then he told him the story from Luke of two men on their way to Emmaus and the appearance of the risen Christ to them. He told him how Jesus ate with them that day. "And it happened right here, on this very spot!" he said. A look of peace and comfort told the major that the story had done its work.