
Hi all, as you may know I often refrain from writing during or about holidays, it's kind of a quirk of mine as I just do not like following the crowd. I know that this weekend in the US, nearly every preacher and teacher of the Lords will be speaking about Memorial Day and the Great Sacrifices our men and women of our military have made to keep us safe and reasonable free from tyranny and guarantee our freedom of religion. Some will compare those sacrifices to the sacrifice the Father made when He allowed His son to be sacrificed for us. Some will talk about the importance of those sacrifices and some will speak to the more esoteric meanings and some will even do as I am going to do and focus on how memorials and gratitude go hand in hand.
The passage I opened this blog with is from the story of Jacob's trip to his mothers family after he had been commanded by his father to find a wife in Haran. I chose this passage because it is one of the earliest records we have of a memorial being placed. Jacob placed this memorial because of the dream he had were God had confirmed the covenant that he had given to Abraham, with Jacob. In other words Jacob had had a personal revelation of God at this place and he did not want to forget it, so he memorialized it.
We, as a Nation have memorialized the sacrifices our family's and Individual military personal have made through various memorials such as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Vietnam Memorial Wall and of course the setting aside of a special day to honor and commemorate those brave men and women, but why?
Why do we create memorials? Why do we set up museums and other means of remembering pain and suffering of those that went before us?
I believe it is because we are so prone to forget, we get wrapped up in our everyday lives and forget that the problems we face are tiny by comparison to the problems others have faced to advance our civilization, to insure our safety and our ability to serve our God.
Gratitude is not something that comes to us easily because we are so ego driven, so self focused. Memorials are designed to help us to get out of ourselves and remember what we have to be grateful for.
Let us not be grateful just to those that have gone on before us and have sacrificed their lives
to us but let us especially be grateful to our God who has rescued us from whatever kind of life we had know before we accepted His payment for our salvation.
Let us also be grateful to our God for all He has given to us, such as this great nation, our freedoms, our family's, our very lives. Maybe we should have a special memorial day set aside for Him ....... oh ya, we already do, it's called the Sabbath.
Every day needs to be a Memorial Day for the Christian, a day when we remember all He has done for us which will give us the faith we need to face our day with courage and in Love as He has commanded.
May God bless you today and every day as you remember His great sacrifice for you.
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