Monday, May 31: Remember!

Today is Memorial Day, a day of picnics and the opening of many swimming pools around the country. Additionally, the day also is associated with huge sales in the department stores. Sadly, as a nation, we have lost sight of the real reason for this holiday. An editorial cartoon reminded me that on Thanksgiving, we bow in thanks of the things we have, and on Memorial Day, we bow in thanks to the people who gave their lives for what we have. Even the men who fought without dying sacrificed, leaving home and homeland to defend our way of life, not knowing if they ever would return.


Though I spent two years at the United States Air Force Academy, I never was called to serve this country. In that time, I studied many of the heroes of the Air Force, who died serving. While at the Academy, I still remember a conversation I had with my mother, who reminded me that the only real hero is a dead hero. Certainly, she was not willing to give up her son for the sake of country. Yet even in the training I received, I was relatively unaware of what others had done for me. No matter how much reading and studying we do about the historical events in reference, we typically don’t picture those events as accurately as a first-hand observer would. That is what I felt like when I saw the movie, “Saving Private Ryan,” particularly the opening assault on the beaches of Normandy. The brutality of that scene was overwhelming, along with the inevitability of countless deaths of teenage men. My visit to the cemetery at Omaha Beach was one of the most chilling days of my life. I still vividly remember walking from gravestone to gravestone in the pristinely maintained cemetery, with grass a lush green even on a cold, winter day. I couldn’t help noticing the young ages of the majority of the dead, most under 20 years of age. There are close to 10,000 Americans buried there.


Remember!


God told the Israelites to do the same:


9 Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, 10 especially concerning the day you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’
Deuteronomy 4:9-10


“Take heed,” reminds us to watch out over our own lives. It takes work to guard over our own hearts, but each moment we are capable of sinning. If we reflect on His commandments, His merciful hand in our lives and His miracles, we will not forget! The Lord performed many miracles for the children of Israel. They even heard His voice on Mount Horeb, giving them the 10 Commandments. In this passage, the Lord reminds us to remember what our eyes have seen or those memories will depart from our hearts forever.


What have we seen? We have seen His mighty hand of miraculous power in each of our lives. Each of us following Him was blind and now sees; was deaf and now hears; was dead and now lives! On this Memorial Day, remember the ones who sacrificed for your life, for your freedom. But more importantly, remember God’s hand in it all, especially in your own life! As the passage above says, teach your children and your grandchildren, so they will not forget, either!


Remember!