Remembering!

Today at church we remembered those who died – in the wars that have raged and continue to rage in our world.

I’m linking back to a post I wrote last year, and I  hope it  helps to remind us of what has been paid for our freedom.

 

https://shortshoestring.wordpress.com/tag/remembrance-day/

Marcia

Lest We Break Faith.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2008/11/07/f-remembrance-day.html

In Canada we’ve been wearing poppies since the beginning of the month, if not before.  We buy one, wear it a while, lose it, and buy another one.  We remind each other with each sighting that someone paid the price of “laying his life down for his friend” so that we could live in peace.

All this week, every transit vehicle has flashed the slogan “Lest We Forget”  as they carry passengers to and fro in our city.  It reminded me of that famous poem “In Flanders Fields” and mostly it reminded me of the final couplet,

If ye break faith with us who die,

We shall not sleep,

Though poppies blow in Flanders Fields.

Today I watched the ceremony from Ottawa on CTV.  I heard the commentary and it gave me cause to think.  While we have not been “at war” with any one country, we have been “at war”.  We are a country at war against those who would deny others the right to freedom, to peace, to a difference of opinion.  We are at war against those who would seek to maim and destroy.

As a person, as a Canadian and as a Christian, I am a person at war.  By memorizing and repeating “In Flanders Fields”  I am committed to “keep the faith”

I’m not sure how that unpacks itself in everyday life.  But perhaps the beginning is in seeking righteousness and rightness with God.  “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life”  Proverbs 11.

I do not come from a family of soldiers, although I have family that has served.  Thank you!  Without your gift, life would be so different.

Marcia

PS:  I chose the picture (Thank you CBC) because I was brought to tears by the spontaneous movement of people to leave their poppies on this tomb.  Apparently one person started this at the first Remembrance Day Service (2000) and it has continued ever since.  Someday I hope to place my poppy there as well.