The little boy was looking at a large plaque in the church narthex. There was name after name of men and women with dates behind each name. As the minister walked by the little boy asked, “Who are all these people?”
“Why son,” said the minister, “these are men and women who died in service.”
The boy looked again with awe at all of the names as he said, “Was that the first or second service?”
There is nothing more powerful than to stand before the commemorative wall of the war of my generation, the Viet Nam War. This was one of the longest and most controversial wars in U.S. history.
A stated goal of the memorial fund was to avoid commentary on the war itself, serving solely as a memorial to those who served. My experience was visiting the traveling replica of the wall when it was displayed at Sauk Center. I stood before it and gently traced over the names of friends….boys who graduated with me….young men I laughed with, and partied with…whose weddings I attended…whose young wives were left behind with children…
Whether or not we approve of our nation’s foreign policy… whether or not we believe that armed conflict is the only way to protect our freedom…these special national holidays do give us an opportunity to remember …. Remember the sacrifices of so many for the cause of our country and what we determine as our freedom.
In our remembering we need to give thanks for those lives…. And we need to give thanks to the ones who returned from that war, other wars, and from today’s wars bearing the wounds of lost youth, lost dreams… scars on body, mind, and spirit.
And our thanksgiving for those who died needs to lead to action in support of our living veterans, and continued work for justice and peace toward a future where, as the Prophet Isaiah proclaimed ,“The LORD will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore.”( Isaiah 2:4 Living Translation)
We need also to remember the One who gave his own life that our world would know a better Way ….a way of peace, of love, of hope, of freedom.
This Memorial Day let us indeed remember those who have died in war, civilians as well as soldiers, and let us pray that the scourge of war be eradicated from our world and remember the One who gave his own life that our world would know a better way. Remember Jesus who said: [One] can have no greater love than to lay down his life for friends.”
(John 15:13)
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This week our contributor is Pastor EvaLyn Carlson of the First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ.
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