Can I pray for you in any way?
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 15:13
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Today is Memorial Day in the United States. It’s not a day of celebration but rather one of solemn remembrance of the depth of selfless sacrifice that men and women have displayed while fighting for their nation and dying while doing so.
For the ages, service members have surrendered their freedoms to preserve those of others. It’s estimated that one percent of the United States population willingly steps forward to support and defend the other ninety-nine and I am proud to be a part of the one percent club.
During my time of service, I remember deploying onboard an amphibious assault ship in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. We left Norfolk, Virginia, and went south off the coast of North Carolina to pick up Marines and equipment. We then sailed to the Persian Gulf where the Marines went ashore to fight. When our mission ended, we went back to retrieve our Marine comrades but all didn’t return. We lost 26 in the fighting and I’ll never forget the memorial service we had for them on the way home. It was one of the more gut-wrenching experiences in my nearly 29 years of service for while the rest of the ship, its crew, and the Marines along for the ride were returning home to a wonderful homecoming, the return was less than joyous for the families of those who didn’t come back.
This sadness and sorrow in losing a loved one that deployed overseas and never returned repeats itself over and over again during the course of any one year. We just don’t hear about it. This is why remembering and respecting those who go into our enemies’ backyard to keep them from coming into our front yard needs to be a continuous observance. We simply can’t afford to forget.
Now, as I consider this matter of being willing to lay down life selflessly for the good of others, I can’t help but see Jesus. He said this in John’s Gospel:
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13
Just as service members enlist and go into harm’s way out of love for their country, the nation’s people being their “friends”, so too did Jesus journey to the cross at the end of His life and surrender everything so the penalty of sin might be vanquished for those who placed their belief in Him. Jesus died for all and He saw (and still sees) everyone as a potential friend, even if they hated (pr hate) Him. It’s the purest, deepest kind of love, an agape love that leads a person to lay down their life for another.
Memorial Day and Jesus. Both linked by the same form of love, the greatest love that leads to a willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice, an exchange of one’s life to preserve the lives of others.
Today and every day, let us never forget the depth of love shown by our service men and women who charge into danger to preserve our liberties, a reflection of the love Jesus showed to ensure all people might be saved.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a
comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment