Honor and Valor

 Today we celebrate Wreaths Across America. A service at the cemetery to honor former military men and women. Wreaths will be laid on 74 different graves to honor those who fought for this country and were buried in the Spring Creek Cemetery. To honor means to regard with great respect. 

In our woke society, it is easy to take the sacrifices of these men and women for granted. To disrespect them, our flag, and our country. That is the mindset of some people. We live in troubling times when words such as honor have very little place among the masses. Today we choose honor. We choose to respect and esteem those who put their lives on the line for the cause of freedom. 

Not all of those military men and women volunteered. Some were drafted. In either case, they answered the call to defend this country and freedom around the world. In places like Normandy, Ija Jima, Pearl Harbor, Okinawa, Iraq, and Afghanistan just to name a few they fought. Some lost limbs. Many lost their lives. 

Why wreaths and why today? Two reasons. Valor and sacrifice. Valor defined means great courage in the face of danger especially in battle. Armed servicemen have stared danger square in the eye without flinching and marched forward. They have hunkered down in bunkers in freezing cold, blistering heat, and torrential rains to press the cause of freedom. Today we choose to honor men and women of valor. Today we choose to pause for a moment in the midst of our busy lives and honor valor. 

We also choose to honor sacrifice. Sacrifice is giving up what is in your own best interest to help others. Those men and women buried in the Spring Creek Cemetery who fought for America did so at great cost. Some came back home in a coffin. Parents sacrificed sons and daughters. Wives sacrificed their husbands. Husbands sacrificed their wives. Children sacrificed their parents. 

Some soldiers did come back home. They sacrificed limbs and other wounds. Others came back with the invisible wounds of PTSD. They struggle with mental health trying to readjust to civilian life. While their wounds are not as easily identifiable as the loss of an arm or leg, they are just as real. 

We choose to honor men and women of valor who sacrificed so much. Some did so over a century ago. Some in more recent times. For all of them today we pause for a moment. We remember. We lay a wreath on their graves. 

The one thing we cannot do is to help their eternal reward or punishment. That was determined before they died depending on reliance in Jesus for salvation or rejection of His sacrifice on the cross. It is too late for those soldiers in the grave. Their remains are buried in the ground, but their souls are either rejoicing in heaven or agonizingly suffering in excruciating ways in hell we cannot imagine or describe. 

In addition to honoring our military personnel, I also choose to honor Jesus who was a man of valor and bravely endured the cross. His sacrifice still brings help and hope to people around the world. It might be too late for those who have already perished, but it is not too late for those of left behind to get right with Jesus if we have not done so before it is too late. Above all I choose to honor Jesus, His valor, and His sacrifice by which people are redeemed to a holy God.