Memorial Day

Good morning.  Today is Memorial Day and my thoughts early this morning are of those brave, scared, young men who lost their life defending my freedom.  I can’t imagine being 18 years old and being in a full scale war or conflict.  I think my initial reaction to being dropped by aircraft into a militarized zone would be panic.  I can only imagine being shell shocked, whatever that is, and being in the mist of bombs, mortars and shells; let alone the bullets flying by.  I’d hope I’d regain my thoughts long enough to jump into a fox hole or be pulled into a fox hole by a fellow soldier.

I’m lucky.  I don’t have to jump down a fox hole.  I’m here “safe” in the continental United States.  My thoughts are not about war, or bullets, or shrapnel.  My thoughts are about what to fix for breakfast and then what I will share at the family picnic.  My thoughts are mundane, they don’t impact any global good or strategic plans; they are just of me and how to get my baked beans and cookies over to my daughter’s house for a picnic.

This Memorial Day I am thinking way beyond the picnic and the pandemic to young boys who have quickly become men by the mere fact that they have to learn to stay safe in a zone that is not safe to be in.  Some of these men are teenagers; some of them are young men; but I bet all of them have families who are without a member of their family today.  Families who pray for the safe return of their soldier.

Some of them will not return.  Some of them will be lost, some of them will escape being captured, some of them will fall by the bullet and be left in the fields, some just will never be found.  Some will be captured by the enemy.  These are the men that Memorial Day is all about. 

Memorial Day is a day when everyone should come together and  thank the men and women who have fallen in the line of duty.  It should be a day when we pause from our busy schedules and think about those brave young boys and girls who become men and women in a war they did not create.

We lost a magnitude of men and women over the decades.  Today, as we pray over our food, let us pray for the families who have one less at their picnic; one less at their dining room table; one less son or daughter to hug.  At our festivities, let's remember the they have fallen so that our celebrations can be complete.

Today I thank everyone who has lost a loved one in the armed services.  May you know that your soldier went on to greatness.