{Remembering the Brave}

 Today, we pause.

We pause to remember, to reflect, and to give thanks. Memorial Day isn’t just a long weekend or the unofficial start to summer, it’s a sacred moment set aside to honor the men and women who so graciously gave everything so that we could live freely.

Freedom is never free. It is paid for with sacrifice...with blood, with courage, with lives laid down in service to something greater than self. And while we can never truly repay those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, we can honor them by remembering. By living lives worthy of their courage. 

Scripture tells us in John 15:13,

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

 

This verse, often quoted on Memorial Day, carries even more weight when we consider that thousands of brave men and women laid down their lives not just for friends, but for people they’d never even met, for generations yet to come. For us. That kind of love is powerful. It's Christ-like. It’s the very heartbeat of sacrifice.

Today, I’m praying with a heart full of gratitude, for the heroes who have gone before us, for their families who still carry the weight of that loss, and for the freedom we are so blessed to enjoy because of their service. May we never take it for granted.

Let us also pray for our current service members...those who continue to stand in the gap, risking their lives to protect our country and uphold peace. May God strengthen them, shield them, and surround them with His presence.

As we gather with family and friends today, maybe around the grill, on the lake, or camping with friends and family, let’s take a moment to pause and remember why we’re able to do so freely. Let's speak the names of the fallen. Let’s share their stories with our children. Let’s live each day with the kind of purpose and gratitude that their sacrifice deserves.

And above all, let us give thanks to the One who gives us eternal freedom, Jesus Christ. Through Him, we are not only free in this life but promised everlasting life.

To those who have served and sacrificed — we remember you, we honor you, and we thank you.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."
— Matthew 5:9