Joan of Arc's Story Should Stand Larger in the Annals of History

   Perhaps it is, Joan of Arc should be one of the most studied chapters of history. The American Revolution -- check; the Roman Empire -- check; and Joan of Arc -- it might should have a check as being as important as anything we have to study.
   I listen to the introduction of a documentary on Joan of Arc, and it says that to study her story, we have to step into a world where God and the devil are real. Therein, perhaps lies the reason her story is so important.
   If there are passages from history that point to God's existence, we should heed them.
   I wonder if the story is well documented. Did it even happen, or is it legend and fairytale? From what I can tell, hers is a true story. That it happened is not in question.
  So, then, here we have it: A teenage girl hears voices telling her to lead the dauphin to Reims for his coronation. England rules France at the time. The dauphin is the Frenchman who would be king if France ruled itself. Now, how does a pheasant girl carry out such a proclamation? She would need to travel perhaps 250 miles across enemy territory just to get the message to the dauphin. She would have to persuade him and others to listen to her, a simple farm girl and put her in charge of an army. Now, I wonder but what that isn't totally out of character for the times, for I am told many in those times claimed to have revelations, and people believed in such things. The question was to determine if they were true, (That, too, is something we should study.)
   Then, there is the complexity of taking the dauphin to Reims. To get to that city, they would need to go through a city under English siege. Joan's solution was to take the city, Orleans, back, which she did. A city that been in the hands of the enemy for months, fell within days to an army led by a poor farm girl.
   Right -- in Hollywood, perhaps, but in history?
   Well, I shorten the story. Joan won her battles. The dauphin was crowned. Joan was captured by the English, and she suffered death by fire.
   What is important about her story, is that she might have been directed by God. I will believe well enough in a God even if the whole Joan of Arc thing isn't true, of course. But if it is? Even if the story is true, I suppose it could all be by chance that it came together as it did.
   Still, if the things that are written are things that indeed did happen, I would be foolish not to wonder but what it was -- even as Joan said -- of God's design. In a world that wonders if there is a God -- or should wonder if there is a God -- these are pages of history that should not be blotted out or glossed over. Rather, they should have importance. There are lessons to be learned from history, and we must not shun them when they have a message as large as this.