by Erin Weist
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
In the United States we celebrate Memorial Day today, the last Monday in May, as a time to remember those from our armed forces who have died. Whatever country you reside, whatever culture or political persuasion you espouse, it is difficult to be untouched by war. In some way or another we know lives that have been destroyed, loved ones who have died, or landscapes (both political and physical) that have been permanently changed because of lust for power in some form or another. And that is only in our lifetime, not to mention the continual landscape of war that has plagued earth from our first recorded histories. Human nature appears to be the one constant, vacillating between love & hate, forgiveness & revenge. And those in our military services end up paying the ultimate price for those most basic human proclivities.
So here is a moment of quiet, a time to honor the dead, those both near to us and ancestors from long ago. Here is a moment to pray, to hope, that wars will cease, that civilizations will practice restraint, that leaders will engage one another nobly and honestly, that the hearts of those who benefit monetarily from war will be softened, and that families can be spared in the future from sending their loved ones somewhere they might never return. We mourn with you who have sacrificed and who are mourning not just this day but always.