“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
Today is the official holiday that Americans observe every year to honor all the men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces. 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.
Today is a day to give thanks to God for everyone who has served our nation . . . but it is not Thanksgiving Day. Today is a day to celebrate the freedom their commitment and sacrifice provided to us . . . but it is not Independence Day. Today is Veterans Day, a day to pause and offer God a prayer of thanksgiving for the freedom we have been given. We live in the greatest nation in the world, but we must never forget that the freedom we enjoy isn’t free. It has been given to us at great cost, a cost for which all veterans paid some . . . and some veterans paid all.
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, 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 honor, 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. There are many millions of veterans yet alive deserving of our thanks.
So to all of you veterans who are reading this today . . . THANK YOU! THANK YOU for your commitment to answer the call. THANK YOU for your willingness to leave your family and friends behind to serve us. THANK YOU for your faithfulness to stand a post for all of us.
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. Call a vet today and Thank them or write them thank them on-line…let them Know they are not forgotten and they are being prayed for today!
God Bless y’all today.
In His Grip,
Pastor mike
