A Day to Remember Before Memorial Day

Today is a day to remember. This is a picture of my father (second from the right) and some of his army buddies from a long time ago. I'm proud that he was a part of the "Greatest Generation," who fought for our country's (make that "the world's") freedom in World War II. He was wounded twice, once from enemy gunfire and once from shrapnel from an enemy artillery shell. Though he never said it, I wonder if the shrapnel wound was the more painful of the two? I would think so because over 30 of the men in his company were killed by that shell.

Today is my father's birthday and he would have been 85, but I thank God for the almost 81 years he had here. I also thank God that he was willing to go and fight to maintain our freedom; and for those soldiers and friends of his who lost their lives the day he was wounded. I know he never forgot that day, or those men, and we shouldn't forget them or any of our brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives in military service to secure and maintain our freedom.


This coming Monday is Memorial Day, and many high school and college graduates will continue to celebrate their recent graduations. I hope they (and their families, and their friends, and all of us!) will take time to remember those teenagers in our country's history who did NOT have such freedom. I'm talking about those teenagers and young adults who willingly answered the call to war, knowing they might not return. Many did not, and because of their sacrifice, we are free.
I will never forget my father, or his service to our country....and I pray I'll never take for granted those men who served with him who did not return home. I hope we will honor their sacrifice by remembering them and by using our freedom to do what they did, to act unselfishly for the betterment of our nation!

Isn't this what freedom is for? As Paul reminds us in Galations 5:13,14: "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Have a meaningful Memorial Day!