Thoughts: A Memorial Day Remembrance

Memorial Day: Remember the Fallen

Posted by David Porter on Friday, May 26, 2017 · 4 Comments

Remembering the Fallen on Memorial Day

I captured this photograph a few years ago at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC. I thought this might serve us all as a poignant reminder about the true reason for our Memorial Day Holiday Weekend.

While we honor the fallen and those who served for our freedom, let us give pause to a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow written late in the 19th-century:

Decoration Day

Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest

On this Field of the Grounded Arms,

Where foes no more molest,

Nor sentry’s shot alarms!

Ye have slept on the ground before,

And started to your feet

At the cannon’s sudden roar,

Or the drum’s redoubling beat.

But in this camp of Death

No sound your slumber breaks;

Here is no fevered breath,

No wound that bleeds and aches.

All is repose and peace,

Untrampled lies the sod;

The shouts of battle cease,

It is the Truce of God!

Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!

The thoughts of men shall be

As sentinels to keep

Your rest from danger free.

Your silent tents of green

We deck with fragrant flowers

Yours has the suffering been,

The memory shall be ours.

Jesus Christ proclaimed in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends“. For those who have demonstrated this “greater love”, we’re thankful. And for those who served to protect our freedoms, we’re also forever grateful.

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4 Comments on “Memorial Day: Remember the Fallen”

Bill and Susie Venohr
May 29, 2017

Thank you David for your article. We need to be reminded why we celebrate this day!

Reply
- David Porter
  June 1, 2017
  
  Your welcome and thanks for YOUR service.
  
  Reply
Ron Wessels
June 1, 2017

Thank you for your comments. Great poem and bible verse!

Reply
- David Porter
  June 1, 2017
  
  You’re welcome. Thanks for stopping by!
  
  Reply