The Value of Memorials
As we celebrate this
Memorial Day weekend, we remember the many men and women who paid the ultimate
price that we might be free as a nation.
In Tom Brokaw’s book, The Great Generation Speaks, he
shares thoughts from the lives of countless who lived through World War 11: “Now
more than a half-century after the end of World War 11, those years have a kind
of rosy glow for many. The stylish
wardrobes; the handsome young men in uniform; swing music, conspicuous
patriotism, and a just cause. The snappy patter of Bob Hope and the soothing
baritone of Bing Crosby, the boogie-woogie of the Andrews Sisters, the jazz of
Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller’s distinctive melodies-all are on the sound track of
the memories running across the mind’s eye.”
However,
the stark reality is that 292,131 Americans were killed in action in World War
II. They lie in lovingly tended
cemeteries in France and Belgium, in the Philippines and Hawaii, in their
hometown family plots and in unmarked graves where they fell in distant
battle. To walk among those headstones,
reading the names, ages, military units, and home states of the dead, is a
humbling and simultaneously affirming experience. Most who died were very young and very far
from home. Now, think of those who were
left behind-the parents, wives, girlfriends, and children. Their loss is not a fleeting experience; it
endures well beyond emotional visits to a cemetery.
So
many young men left home at a tender age-late teens or early twenties-and were
never seen again. Now the only reminder
is a yellowing black-and-white photograph of a Sailor in a uniform, or a Marine
on a sandy beach, or an Airman with a crushed cap set at a jaunty angle, or a Soldier
looking at once proud and not old enough to be a warrior. Someone’s son, brother, husband, boyfriend,
died in a way that even now is too painful to recount easily.
Most
of those who survived know it was simply fate that saved them. Their buddies a few feet to the left and to
the right were fatally wounded. The
survivors carry that with them to this day; they are still asking, “Why did I
survive?” Every day and every
opportunity is a dividend their fallen comrades never realized. One man wrote to me about his father, a World
War 11 combat veteran who had lost many young friends in battle. Recalling
those who didn’t live beyond their twenties, the dying man said to his son,
“Don’t sing any sad songs for me, boy.
I’ve had my life. I’ve seen my
grandchildren. Don’t sing any sad songs
for me.”
Take
time today and tomorrow to do a few things
1. Look
back and remember the deceased (John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.”)
2.
Look
out and love the living (Col. 3:12-14 “Therefore, as God’s
chosen people, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion…AND OVER ALL
THESE VIRTUES PUT ON LOVE, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”)
3.
Look
up and honor the Lord (Matt. 22:36-37 “Love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Terry Risser
Copyright 2014
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