Circuit Thoughts

I pray everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day celebration. I just want to share a few thoughts on this wonderful celebration.

This holiday was originally known as Decoration Day and originated in the years following the Civil War. It started as a tribute to all those that fell during that bloody struggle. That struggle took good people on both sides of the Mason/Dixon line. The holiday’s objective was to decorate the graves of those fallen soldiers so as not to forget that bloody struggle and pray that it will never happen again.

For years it was celebrated on May 30, but in 1971 the last Monday of May became the official Memorial Day, and the unofficial start of summer.

We now celebrate Memorial Day with picnics and family outings. Various groups go to graveyards and clean up and decorate the graves of the fallen. Churches sometimes hold special services to remember those who died in service to our country. The point is that we never forget the cost of being citizens of this great nation.

During the Civil War, brothers fought brothers, and families were torn apart. In Missouri, many orphans were gathered up and taken to Warrenton on the “orphan train”, there they stayed at what would become the “Epworth children’s home”. Much was lost. What we forget is that Christians died on both sides of the battle line. After that war we became involved in global politics and are still losing loved ones to wars and actions on foreign lands.

Our prayers must always be with the men and women who don the various uniforms of service in this country. We must never let them down or forget them. Likewise, the families of these fine men and women must never be dismissed or ignored for they too are making a great sacrifice. Our veterans must be treated with the utmost respect and allowed to keep their dignity intact.

And for those who gave their all, we must never forget. The moment we forget the cost of our freedom, is the moment we lose our freedom. We must honor their loss and ours. My grandfather is one of those honored dead. He lost his life crossing a bridge on the Rhine in 1945. He left behind a wife and three children, so that you and I could live in a world free of tyranny. Let’s not let that dream die with him and the others.

No scripture today, just some personal thoughts on a subject that is near and dear to my heart. God has given us a gift in those who strove to keep America and its allies free, let’s not waste that gift.

Let me leave you with a thought from Francis Scott Key:

O! thus be it ever, when free men shall stand between their loved homes and the war’s desolation.

Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven rescued land praise the power that hath made and preserved it a nation

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just.

And this be our motto- “In God is our trust”

And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

(The Star-Spangled Banner, verse 4)

See you in church.