After Bible Study this past Sunday as I walked in the hall toward our church sanctuary for worship, I overheard a child ask his parent, "Why Memorial Day?" 

This prompted me to wonder how many children ponder the same question. 

The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, at that time claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the founding of our country’s first national cemeteries.

 

By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers, and reciting prayers. Historical records establish one of the earliest Memorial Day tributes were organized by a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 Confederate troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox Court House in 1865. United by love and respect these freed African Americans chose love not hate, and country not color.

 

Decoration Day, as Memorial Day gradually came to be known, originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War II, The Vietnam War, The Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I have served with, loved, and lost many comrades in arms. For those who never served, they may ask 

“Why Serve?”

Our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airman, and Coast Guard serve for sundry reasons. Some serve out of a sense of duty and honor, some for the challenge, some for an opportunity to gain life skills and education.

Celebrating Memorial Day unites and connects the hearts of today’s military with the hearts of those who have served, with the hearts of those who will serve our great country, with the heart of each citizen, and memories with our fallen comrades who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

It has been a few years since I recalled the following prayer, and I admit it had slipped into the repository of my memory. Shortly after the attacks of 9/11, I was asked to write a prayer for our military and their families. Please continue to pray for our military as we remember, and celebrate love not hate, and country not color. Let us celebrate the three colors which never run composed in our Star-Spangled Banner Red, White, and Blue. 

 

Military Prayer

 

Father, it takes a brave heart to     

 take a stand and fight for Freedom.

 Lord guard and guide the men         

and woman who march, sail, fight

 and fly upholding them by    

thy Saving Grace.

                It is our prayer you bring each              

of them home safe and sound

to their families, loved ones,

           and if providentially you carry       

                   them home providing a place               

 of rest and refuge;

                        we pray you to protect                         

 and shelter their families

with Thy Tender Mercies 

until we see them again

Amen

 

Soli Deo Gloria

 

Jay Adam Pearson