MEMORIAL DAY

             As I grow older I become ever more aware that memory is fleeting. Our grandson was working on a school project which examined the impact of World War II on those who lived through it. Both Liz and I were children during that war. I was six when it began and ten when it ended. We dug into our memories for ways the war impacted us. We thought of things we haven’t thought of in years. And the more we thought, the more memories popped up. But it is amazing how much we cannot remember. This is evident also when we look at pictures from thirty, forty or fifty years ago. Looking at those pictures, we recapture memories that left us in the intervening years. And some pictured events we still cannot remember.

            Some memories stay with us better than others. These are the precious memories about which the gospel song speaks. “Precious memories, how they linger, how they every flood my soul.”

            But to help preserve memories we erect memorials. And for that purpose we observe Memorial Day, a day begun to honor and remember those killed in the civil war, but which now encompasses all those who have gone from our midst. It became “Decoration Day” for many rural cemeteries.

 In Proverbs (10:7) Solomon says “The memory of the righteous is blessed.” I would paraphrase that to say it is a blessing to us when we remember those who have departed. 

Grace and peace. 

Mel