Freedom

John 8:36  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. I won’t wish you a “Happy” Memorial Day, because there’s no “happy” in it. It’s a day of remembrance–a day to honor those who died in defense of their country.

Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day. After the Civil War, across the country, communities began the tradition of gathering at cemeteries to decorate the graves of the Civil War dead with flowers and flags. Some records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was organized in 1865 by a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina, less than a month after the Confederacy’s surrender.

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. He proclaimed that May 30 was to be designated “for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.”

By the late 19th century, many communities across the country had begun to celebrate Memorial Day, and after World War I, observers began to honor the dead of all of America’s wars. In 1971, Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday to be celebrated the last Monday in May. 

As Memorial Day 2022 approaches, while we’re picnicking, and boating, and watching parades, and shooting fireworks, let us not forget the meaning behind it all. I wish that I’d written the following passage, but the author is unknown: 

Monday will be the most expensive holiday on the calendar.

Every hot dog, every burger, every spin around the lake, or drink with friends and family is a debt purchased by others.

This is not about all who’ve served–that day comes in the fall.

This one is in honor of those who paid in life and blood; whose moms never saw them again, whose dads wept in private, and whose kids only remembered them from pictures.

This isn’t simply a day off.

This is a day to remember that others paid for every free breath you ever get to take.

Freedom.

 

Information in this article summarized from https://americasbestpics.com/picture/monday-will-be-the-most-expensive-holiday-on-the-calendar-K5Cvi4Na9