“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12-13
This is not a call to venerate our Veterans on this day but to remember and give thanks for their faithful stewardship of our lives and the virtues of this country. To remember and give thanks for these precious gifts that God has given through the years for our defense and freedoms. To remember and give thanks for all those currently serving that we may honor their service by living out the truths they fight/fought to help preserve everyday so we can freely serve our God and bring Him glory. So on Veterans Day, we pause to honor these patriots, as is right and fitting.
World War I ended at 11AM on November 11, 1918. (Eleventh month, eleventh day at the eleventh hour) The next year, President Woodrow Wilson declared the Armistice Day holiday to commemorate that peace. Armistice Day became a national holiday in 1938 and, in 1954, that holiday was renamed Veterans Day.
America’s acknowledgment and appreciation for veterans existed long before the 20th Century, however. For example, George Washington, American General and the first President of our nation, discussed the importance of providing veterans benefits: “It was a part of their [the soldiers’] hire, I may be allowed to say, it was the price of their blood and of your Independency, it is therefore more than a common debt, it is a debt of honour, it can never be considered as a pension or gratuity.”
Abraham Lincoln acknowledged an 1864 victory with these words: “I am indeed very grateful to the brave men who have been struggling with the enemy in the field, to their noble commanders who have directed them, and especially to our Maker….we should, above all, be very grateful to Almighty God, Who gives us victory.
President Benjamin Harrison once noted that “no emotion cools sooner than that of gratitude.” This often seems to be true, and that is why we need observances like Veteran’s Day in order to keep the emotion of gratitude warm and alive.
And then into the 20th Century, President Ronald Reagan said, “Veterans know better than anyone else the price of freedom. For they have suffered the scars of war. We can offer no better tribute than to protect what they have won for us.”
Since the nation’s birth, over 40 million citizens have worn an American uniform in military service. Over one million have died in service to their country. Over 19 million veterans of armed conflicts are alive today.
We are the stewards of the freedoms those brave Americans fought and died to protect. We know and enjoy these freedoms only because other Americans had the courage to put their lives on the line for the American vision of a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
Veteran’s Day is an observance far too important to miss. Express your gratitude to the veterans in your community and teach your children to do the same. Our gratitude must not grow cold.
God Bless y’all today.
In His Grip,
Pastor mike
