Embraced By Hope

I posted this two years ago and it seems sadly appropriate again this year.  This was Normandy Beach many years ago.  There are new white crosses this year.  Not at Normandy Beach in France, but here in cemeteries across our great United States.  We are still at war.  And we will continue to be at war, whether it's war with other nations over security, war with neighbors over property issues, war with family over wounded hearts and war with evil as Satan's time gets shorter and shorter.  We are a world at war.  We have a COMMANDER IN CHIEF that knows the battles, the battle fields, and knows the date and time of the final battle.  We know the final outcome - good and God win in the end.  But for now we continue to stand as warriors against the harm being inflicted.  

As we celebrate this Memorial Day, may we honor our fallen warriors, care well for our wounded warriors and reach out to the families that are putting their lives on hold so their soldiers can fight on our behalf.  

And now the repost from two years ago.............. 

This cross stands in the American Cemetery above Normandy beach and the Omaha invasion in France. The writing on the cross doesn't carry a name or rank. It says "here lies a soldier known only to God......." I was overwhelmed to find so many just like this one - unknown - only to God. I gently rubbed my hand over each one I came to as I walked the cemetery, grateful for the sacrifice of so many on my behalf.

I wondered what determination and courage it took for these young men to travel to a world they didn't know, to fight for people they would never meet, to leave behind families who would never know their final hours, to stand so valiantly for a cause they so strongly believed in.

And because of their sacrifice and the sacrifice of many like them, I live free to choose where I worship, what I will eat and wear, when I will speak and what I choose to speak, and many more freedoms that I often take for granted.

I am grateful and moved to be more conscious of the grace I live under - that which God bestowed on me and the freedoms I enjoy - bought for me by the lives of many I will never know. It's a sobering and hopeful thought.

Will I stand and sacrifice as willingly for the causes I believe in? How about you?