Memorial Day is on May 27th

              
                        "No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has
                         been reserved for what he gave." Pres. Calvin Coolidge

Monday, May the 27^th is this year’s Memorial Day. As you read this editorial I will doing my part to honor our nations veterans in Washington DC just as I have done for the past four years. Being a military vet myself, this and Veteran’s Day are special holidays to me. I was fortunate in that I never had to serve in actual combat, but many of my friends and comrades did and I salute them for that service.

Someone once described a veteran this way: "A veteran - whether on active duty, retired, national guard or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including their life." I find no fault with that statement and can only add this thought: that "check" has been cashed far too many times.

A US Marine Corps Chaplain penned these words: "It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag. Who serves the flag. Who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protestor to burn the flag."

In light of those words regarding our nations’ military veterans, it just seems a bit puzzling to me that so many of our citizens don’t spend the time to reflect upon the sacrifices made by our vets. In the past four years that I’ve made the trip to our nation’s capital in honor of all of our veterans I’ve noticed something that sort of bothers me. It just seems like the people there in honor of Memorial Day and its significance are the ones who came there from across the country to do that. The city is empty of about all our government officials who left to go play somewhere.
I’m of the opinion that they and a large portion of Americans only see this holiday as representing another long weekend of fun and play activities. Oh, they probably know that it’s called Memorial Day, but they don’t truly recognize it for the purpose it was originally designated. To REMEMBER the nation’s veterans and their sacrifice for their country. I guess that it’s their collective lack of consideration for the debt we owe our veterans that bothers me.

See, a memorial is something that is set up to cause us to remember - to think about what occurred that is important enough that we should center our minds on it. On this occasion, that "centered" thought is the sacrifice made by all the veterans of all of our wars, regardless of whether they were "officially declared" or not.
I’ve used the word "sacrifice" several times already in this missive so I’d like to take a moment and define the word for you. It basically means: to give up something of value in order to receive something of a greater value. To me, that definition is easily seen in the sacrifice of our veterans for the greater good of our country. But, I think that it can also be seen in a spiritual sense and we’ll look at that a little further on in our thoughts here today.

One of the most emotional and moving ceremonies that I’ll be attending will be the evening observance at the Vietnam Memorial Wall. It is a memorial that attracts several million visitors a year and at the Memorial Day evening ceremony there will be several thousand in attendance. One of the more moving aspects of it is the somber parade of the "Gold Star" mothers and fathers whose sons and daughters names are inscribed on "The Wall."

A veteran by the name of Pat Camunes wrote an interesting article entitled: "From The Other Side" which presents the Wall from the prospective of ones "on the wall" looking out and seeing those visiting the wall. Of course, it’s highly imaginative and figurative, but it provides me with another lead in to the spiritual side of today’s lesson. It’s quite lengthy so I’ll just mention a few excerpts from it here.

He writes about those looking through the wall and seeing their loved ones coming to "touch" their name. To place personal objects at the base of the wall that have a particular meaning to either the family or the deceased. (I have personally done this for people who asked me to take a particular object to the wall and leave it for their loved one and I will tell you that it was very emotional to me and I was just an intermediary.)

The author of this article depicts those "on the other side of the wall" as being very thankful for someone remembering them and coming to "visit them." He pictures them as watching them leave and as they walk away from The Wall shouting "THANK YOU FOR REMEMBERING... THANK YOU ALL FOR REMEMBERING!"

A few paragraphs back, I gave you a definition of "sacrifice" and I’d like to return to that thought now. Recall that I said it basically meant to "give up something of value in order to receive something of a greater value?" Let’s open the spiritual aspect of our lesson with that thought.

Each and every Lord’s Day we observe a memorial. A memorial that represents the most important sacrifice ever made on this earth. God "gave up something of value" - the life of His Only Begotten Son - for "something of a greater value" - the salvation of the world. (John 3:16)

In Romans 12:1 we read where we are to present ourselves as a "living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God." The writer, Paul, goes on to say that it’s a "reasonable service" for us to do this. For man to receive the "greater value" of the sacrifice made by Christ, it’s "reasonable" that we live in such a way, being obedient to the Gospel of Christ, that we recognize the "value" of His "sacrifice." If we don’t, in effect, we "count" the "blood of the covenant," which was sanctified by His sacrifice, "an unholy (profane) thing." (Heb. 10:29)

When I open my Bible to the passages found in 1 Cor. 10:16-22 and also chapter 11:23-34 I note there that Christ is aware of how we observe the memorial of His "sacrifice." Knowing this, I have no problem visualizing Him saying "THANK YOU FOR REMEMBERING!"

On D-Day, June 6^th, 1944 the Allies made the landings on the beaches of Normandy. The fighting was fierce with the German army pouring terrible fire down from the cliffs into the soldiers on the beach. A unit of Army Rangers was tasked with scaling the cliffs and securing a foothold on top. They were given a radio code phrase to send back when they had successfully made it. That phrase was: "PRAISE THE LORD!"

Do you think that faithful Christians could adopt that code phrase when we successfully "arrive on top?" Wouldn’t it be most appropriate to shout "PRAISE THE LORD." What better signal could be given for having completed our "reasonable service" and been found "acceptable unto God."


Ron Covey