When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”

This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,

“They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.”

So this is what the soldiers did. John 19:23-24

While we don’t know for sure, the soldiers were probably just barely making ends meet so they took what they could then rolled the dice for what remained. We don’t know their names but they’re forever remembered as the soldiers at the foot of the cross. They even fulfilled prophecy without knowing it.

In Mark 15:39 we know that the Centurion guard at the foot of the cross proclaimed, “truly this man was God’s Son!” We know the sky was dark and that at the moment of Jesus’ death there was a great earthquake which could have contributed to the Centurion’s words. So, even in the midst of his physical death, Jesus was changing lives.

Now the U.S. military is far different than anything the Romans had. But soldiers are soldiers. As a whole, they complain and grumble about living conditions, food, and pay. But it’s in these times, when the soldiers are far from home that they begin thinking about life and love and money and the meaning of life. I know that because more than 30 years ago I was in the same boat, and it was while I was in the military that I surrendered my life to Christ.

Chances are good that you know someone in the military.

Pray for that person by name.

Pray that God will meet them even as the earth is dark and trembling around them (figuratively speaking).