Dr. Lawrence Butler, The Bridge Church, Pembroke
Memorial Day has been established on the last Monday in May as the day to remember and recognize the fallen soldiers who gave their all in service to our country. “Oh, beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. For purple mountains majesty, above the fruited plain.
America, America, God shed His grace on thee. And crowned thy good, with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.” Do you remember those words? Many of us sang this in school as children when patriotism was still in vogue.
There is disagreement about the beginning of Memorial Day.
Several cities around the country claim to be the birthplace of this holiday, but there is no clearcut agreement on the issue. In the 1860’s slaves in Charleston, South Carolina, gathered to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers while women in Savannah, Georgia, did the same for Confederate soldiers. As many as 25 cities have staked claim to having had an early connection with honoring the Civil War dead.
Many of these are located in the South because that is where most of the graves are. It was called Decoration Day in some places.
Following World War I there was a move to include the soldiers lost in that war in the special services honoring fallen soldiers.
Ultimately, all the soldiers lost in military conflicts for our country were included and recognized in the memorial services. Today this number has reached approximately 1.4 million in all conflicts since the Revolutionary War.
God has greatly blessed our nation with freedom and prosperity. During the Cold War (roughly from 1945 -1989) the Soviet Union built walls that kept people in and would not allow them to leave. They were little more than prisoners under the boot of Communism. But, look at America. People wanted to flee Communism while basically no one wanted to leave the US and go to Communist countries.
People around the world want to come to our country because of our blessings and freedom.
The Bible said, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). I’m certainly not saying that our country has always been righteous, but there have been many people who served the great God of heaven and prayed for His blessings. Thankfully, we have enjoyed those blessings.
