Memorial Days thoughts

When you read this, it will be after this year’s Memorial Day. However, as I write, the day has not yet come, but I was reflecting a bit on what Memorial Day is all about.

As you may or may not know (I had to look it up), Memorial Day started after our nation’s civil war in 1868 by Major General John A Logan, the commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. He started it, calling it “Decoration Day” as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. In 1971, the US Congress established it as a federal holiday by the name of “Memorial Day.”

As I reflect, I am truly thankful to God for those who have fought and died to establish and defend the freedoms we have today. Regardless of what revisionary historians may try to say, our country was founded upon Biblical principles by men who feared God and loved Jesus Christ, and they fought to free themselves and subsequent generations from the control, governance and tyranny of 18th century Great Britain. And the civil war was fought to free those humans who have a different amount of melanin in their genetics from being owned and treated as inhuman property. Both of these wars clearly had a profound impact on our country and if the outcomes had been different, we could be living in a vastly changed political and cultural environment.

Our family has been watching Drive Through History, a video series by Dave Stotts, that takes us on road trips throughout the areas he discusses, and I am over and over again enthralled by the accounts of God’s providence in working out the details of history. Job reminds us that God is in control of everything that happens – Job 42:2 says, “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

As you celebrate with friends and family this Memorial Day, and Memorial Days to come, remember to thank God for His hand in allowing those to fight, die and sacrifice their lives to make our nation the place it is today. I love to travel and in my travels have seen many amazing countries, people and things, but I still have not found a place on earth that I would rather live and be than our United States of America.