Memorial Day–dare we never forget the sacrifices!  This country, so beautiful in so many ways.  From the people who struggled to make it a great country, to those who continue to serve to protect its wonderful bounty.  I have always thanked the Lord to live in this country.  Sure, there are those who sometimes grate my last nerve, but I can look past that to the blessed land in which the Lord placed me to live.  Others do not have this opportunity.  God surely has shed His grace on the United States.

          “O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,
           For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain!
           America!  America!  God shed His grace on thee,
           And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!”
                    –Katherine Lee Bates

With all of the bickering today, the ignorance and stupidity that is happening, we often forget the reasons why God allowed this country to be established.  One of those are seen in the pilgrims.  There were pilgrims all up and down the eastern coast, but the attention often is drawn to those at Plymouth who wanted to worship the Lord.  Other “pilgrims” came for economic and political liberty.  Either way, the theme was freedom.  And they took it across the great land that God had provided–Manifest Destiny.  Some deride the notion today, and there were issues that arose that were not handled properly, but this land was destined.

          “O beautiful for pilgrim fee, Whose stern, impassioned stress
           A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness!
           America!  America!  God mend thy ev’ry flaw,
           Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!”

Goodness, do we need self-control today!  People clamor for rights, but they forget those who died for those rights.  The problem is that in wanting “their rights” they forget the necessity of accepting their responsibility.  I could name the battles where men sacrificed for love of country and family and freedom.  They didn’t want to die, but they understood the cost of freedom.  The idea that man is noble is foreign to so many.  The idea that God is the provider and everything that is done in this country, because of His bountiful gift, should be thought of as divine.  Shame on us, shame on us!

          “O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife.
           Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life!
           America!  America!  May God thy gold refine
           Till all success be nobleness And ev’ry gain divine!”

The early patriots saw into the future.  They fought, bled, and died not just for their day, but for future generations.  They saw what America might become.  Did they have prophetic vision?  Maybe some did, but never mind that, they sacrificed not just for their family, but for generations to come.  This nobleness continued through the generations.  It makes me wonder, do we stop and think what America will be like in a hundred years?  Perhaps there is too much “junk” happening for us to see through the fog.  We must again be like the Greatest Generation, like the pilgrims and pioneers of old–continue to make America into the nation that God designed.

          “O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years
           Thine alabaster cities gleam, Undimmed by human tears!
           America!  America!  God shed His grace on thee,
           And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea.”

We certainly need God’s grace!

All gave some;
Some gave all!”
–unknown

“Uncommon Valor was a common virtue.”
–Adm. Chester Nimitz

Valor among those in the military, is not a rarity, but it is the norm.  Most of the time the call that comes forth is not one of death and destruction, but when it does come it is answered.  Memorial Day is upon us.  It is the time when we recall those who have sacrificed for our country.  It is not the same as Veteran’s Day, but in a sense all give; it is a time of remembrance.
I had two members of my family who died on foreign soil.  There was a cousin who fell that awful day of June 6, 1944 on the beaches of Normandy.  He is still buried there.  A young man, who never had a chance to see the fruition of his life; one who gave his all.  My uncle, in 1966, died in Vietnam.  He left a wife and three sons at home; boys he would never see grow into manhood.
Perhaps that is why those snowflakes jerks my jaws so much.  They do not have an inkling of the sacrifices that have been given for their freedom, and then they use it in stupidity.  Don’t give me that nonsense that they are just standing up for their rights.  The blood that was spilt on the beaches, the jungles, and the sands is what has given them their rights.  But, that is a subject for another time.
Dave Roever wrote (and I’ve said it before–you need to read his story!), “War will have one of two consequences.  Scars or death.  No one survives war without scars, whether internal or external.  You can’t go through such an experience and not be affected.  However, I am grateful that those ‘scars’ don’t have to become a crutch or a label for the rest of your life.  For others, unfortunately, death is the price paid so that we may enjoy freedom.  It never gets easier to think about.  It never gets easier for the families left behind to pick up the pieces.  There is a void in the hearts of loved ones that will last forever.”
Many years after the death of my uncle the local newspaper came to visit my Grandma and my Aunt for an interview.  There was a hidden agenda behind the interview which never happened.  My Grandma said that “you never stop missing him.”  Throughout the interview the reporter was trying to get them to say how bad the war was, and that we should never had been there.  They wouldn’t succumb to that, because they understood the meaning of sacrifice.  They served a Savior that gave the sacrifice for their eternal souls. 
What is it behind sacrifice?  What words come from the grave and even more so from the risen Christ?  They would tell us to enjoy life to the fullest.  Our lives should come to honor the sacrifices that were made from us; to honor the price paid.  Roever, a person who bears on his body the scars of war continues, “Be mindful of their sacrifice, but enjoy the friends and family gathered at the city park and in the backyard.  Enjoy a time to eat burgers and hot dogs cooked on the grill, to laugh and play, to tickle the kids and go to bed exhausted.  They would not want their sacrifice to end at the grave… .  [Jesus] wants us to be mindful and remember His sacrifice that brought our freedom.  But He also wants us to live in the freedom He purchased.”
Take time to remember.  Take time to reflect.

“We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”
–Joshua 4:6-7 (NLT)