A Legacy to Keep

Americans commemorate Memorial Day with barbeques, parades, and gatherings with family and friends. In my growing-up years, the holiday typically found our family on a day hike, enjoying the grandeur of God’s creation in the Pacific Northwest. But for far too many of us, the day passes without reflection on its intended purpose: honoring those who gave “the last full measure of devotion” in service to their country. Since the first humble minutemen, whose blood was spilt on Lexington Green in 1775, American soldiers have willingly given the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the continued legacy of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" to future generations of Americans. Today is the day we remember them.

Sometimes I become discouraged and even doubt if the ideal of true liberty, the philosophy of limited, constitutional government, and the notion of a nation grounded in Biblical law and morality, is worth fighting for. Perhaps those principles just aren’t worth the cost.

            

But then I wonder...what would I say to the Continental soldier at Valley Forge, with his bloodied feet leaving scarlet footprints in the snow, his tattered "uniform" barely giving him the slightest protection from the elements, and his life hanging by a thread? What would he say to me, if he knew that two centuries later I would so casually give up the principles for which he fought and bled—the dream of liberty to which he so tenaciously clung in the war's darkest hour?

            

What would I say to the defenders of Ft. McHenry who, during the war of 1812, gallantly flew the Star-Spangled Banner in defiance of the British fleet bombarding them through the long night? What would I say to the “honored dead” of Gettysburg, Blue and Gray alike, who valiantly struggled for the American ideals of freedom and justice? What would I say to the U.S. Marines whose blood stained the sands of Iwo Jima as they fought to preserve what the men at Valley Forge had died to create? 

What would I say to my own grandfather, who faithfully flew reconnaissance missions for the U.S. Navy off of Alaska's western shores to ensure his country's safety during the Second World War? And what would I say to Navy Seal Caleb Nelson, a man I knew personally, killed in Afghanistan in 2011, leaving behind a wife and two young sons? 

No, I could not, and as Americans, we must not be so ungrateful, so flippant, so callous, as to toss aside the legacy of freedom and liberty that these patriots, and millions of others, have given us at the cost of their very life's blood. We must be grateful sons and daughters who remember what our fathers and mothers have given us, and in turn give our utmost to see that their legacy is continued.

So please, thank the Lord today for these brave Americans of our day and of times past, who have given us the "new birth of freedom" we continue to enjoy. And may God give us the courage and commitment to see that their legacy lives on.