F-16

Northwest of our home in Aurora, Colorado, is Buckley Air Force Base. From the runways at Buckley, the Air Force launches F-16 fighter planes on a regular basis. Frequently their departure route takes them right through the air space over my home, at least that’s what I assume.

Typically, when I hear the powerful blast of the Pratt & Whitney engine propelling the aircraft, I’m lost in trying to visually locate the machine. The reverberations trail the image. I hear what I can’t see. The power and presence disappear by the time the impact hits me.

Norma Napue is an F-16. Actually, she works at the Youth for Christ office in Englewood, Colorado, just down the road from Buckley. Norma is a part-time receptionist and a full-time saint. For the past eleven years Norma has answered the phone, greeted visitors, welcomed friends, and served unselfishly. But those job functions aren’t where Norma draws her boundaries. She lovingly, compassionately and tenderly prays for people all around the world. She pleads the case for the defenseless. She’s verbalizes the pain of the speechless. She loves the forgotten.

At the end of the month Norma will leave her desk at the YFC office. She’s agreed to help her daughter in another business, it’s family! But the sound of Norma’s powerful spiritual engine will be heard long after she disappears. In fact, that’s the way it is most of the time. The earth shakes when a saint prays, but authentic humility makes them invisible.

We will never know where the sound waves have traveled. We will never know the full impact of this woman as she has interceded and encouraged. But one thing is clear; the sound of Norma’s impact will last long after she steps away from her desk.

Indeed, she is our F-16. May we live and love and pray like Norma.