Days like today we find ways to show our gratitude to men and women who cared enough to offer the "supreme sacrifice" to protect and defend those they loved in a less than perfect world.
Wars and rumored wars -- nation fighting nation, government fighting government, whole sections of the world at war -- is sad, but routine history. War writes its own commentary on who we are, what we value, what we're willing to defend, sacrifice, and die for.
War is the great divide in the human family.
To what degree war is just and to what degree war is politics (a mixture of both?), I'll leave to the philosophers. War can be necessary -- even a necessary evil, but necessary nonetheless. War can be political -- a fight motivated by egotism dressed up as justice. But whatever the motive, noble or ignoble, war comes at a high price and a heavy cost: human life.
War, like a strong thunderstorm, clears the atmosphere, but only temporarily. Because war often changes circumstances but never changes human nature. The circumstantial results of war may last for centuries, yet human hearts filled with hate, prejudice, greed, bitterness, revenge, lust for power, sense of superiority that inflamed war remain untouched.
War humbles us. We're faced with the fact that, at best, we're deeply flawed humans living in a deeply flawed world.
"Father, bless those now serving in Harm's Way. God of compassion and mercy, you know us, everything about us. You know our sins and transgressions. But you desire that we know you. May we use our freedom that was won at great sacrifice to know you and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Amen."
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