Remember

We were standing in the check-out lane, picking up some last minute groceries after our church picnic Sunday afternoon. The store was pretty crowded, something we hadn’t noticed before since we try to avoid shopping on Sundays. Dad asked the cashier if it was usually this busy on a Sunday afternoon. She said, “Yes, plus with a holiday tomorrow there’s more people.”

It really saddened me to hear this. Yet another sobering reminder of what our American holidays have become: opportunities to party. When you think about it, nearly all of our holidays were created to remember something. At Thanksgiving we remember our forefathers and God’s providence towards them, at Christmas we remember Christ’s birth, at Easter we remember Christ’s death and resurrection, Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day were meant to remember these two saints of old, and Memorial Day and Veterans Day were created to remember our soldiers, those living and dead. Instead the only thing we try to remember is to pick up the burgers, chips, and potato salad.

The Israelites were notorious “forgetters.” In one book of the Bible they are praising and thanking the Lord for His providence, and in the next book we see the next generation forgetting all about the Lord and serving other gods. The book of Deuteronomy cautions many times not to forget the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:12, “be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”) God wants us to remember all that He has done for us, His protection, His deliverance, and His love for His children.

But we keep forgetting! We forget God, we forget what our forefathers taught us, and we forget those who are sacrificing their lives even now for our sake. This Memorial Day, I encourage you to remember our soldiers and pray for them. We should remember those who have died and honor them, but we shouldn’t stop there. We also need to remember and pray for those who are still fighting for our freedoms, and for our protection. We shouldn’t just remember and pray for them on Memorial Day or Veterans Day; we should remember and pray for them all year long.

So take some time today to thank the Lord for His providence and protection for the citizens of the United States of America, and pray for the safety of those who are still fighting to preserve our nation. God bless America, my home sweet home!