Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land…”
Ezekiel 22: 30 (NIV)“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15: 12-13 (ESV)“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman….”
Thomas Paine (December 25, 1776)
I received a text from a dear friend remarking how the 82nd Anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 1944, seemed to pass by our Nation this past Saturday very quietly.
He had lost an uncle who was an American pilot during World War II in the times leading up to and preparing for D-Day.
Upon reflection, I wonder if you, too, noticed fewer remembrances made of that day, remembering the Allied invasion of the beaches of the Normandy shores of France on the English Channel.
On D-Day, the United States forces advanced on Utah and Omaha Beaches, Great Britain on Gold and Sword Beaches, and Canada advanced on Juno Beach.
A moment sadly marked by the loss of thousands of lives, but a moment to remember, respect, and stand with all those whose sacrifices began the turn in World War II toward victory and to saving the world from the Nazi evil.
I wonder sometimes today if we simply take for granted all they did for us then, and throughout World War II, and other wars and conflicts.
In World War II alone, over 16,000,000 US Armed Forces members served. More than 400,000 died, and nearly 700,000 more were wounded.
Many are buried in cemeteries on six continents where WW II raged, with gravesites marked with white Crosses, or Stars of David, with many of those by necessity without a name, but instead bearing proudly the inscription— “Here Rests in Honored Glory—A Comrade in Arms—Known but to God.”
All by those fighting against the evil of the Nazi’s “Final Solution” which resulted in the murder by the Nazis of over six million of our Jewish family members, and many others, in addition to all the Allied Forces lost in the War.
Many of our citizens, businesses, educational institutions, and houses of worship remember, respect, and stand with those who stood in the gap for us against that evil.
An evil still prevalent and growing in our country and the world today, with the rise of antisemitism.
But there are many—businesses, citizens, educational institutions, places of worship, and numerous other venues—who promote or ignore it, and refuse to stand against the evil of antisemitism.
Martin Luther King, Jr. shared this truth for his day and what he faced, and for us today, when he said—
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting it is really cooperating with it.”
I wonder where each of us will stand in the face of evil.
When we stand against evil, we stand with those who sacrificed it all for us, assuring our freedom, security, and future.
Remember. Respect. Stand.
In His Name–Scott
You will be thankful and proud as you watch this video, with powerful scenes and the anthem “Hymn to the Fallen” by John Williams from the movie “Saving Private Ryan.”
