Monday, May 27, 2013

Today We Remember

 

"There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends." -- John 15:13

Eleven years doesn’t seem like a lot when you’ve reached a certain age but it is a gulf that separates children into different generations. He was my cousin and yet he is but a fleeting memory.

His laughter still brings a smile to my face. His eyes twinkled and his was always up to something, whether it was jumping off the pier at Lake Fox or doing what teenagers do.

He grew up. He got married. And then he went away to war and never came home. We are all the lesser for his loss.

Those who served with him say he died saving someone else. His parents were proud. His father, dead these past few years, never missed a Memorial Day event. He made sure he was there every time they read his son’s name.

His mother never lost that haunted look that became a part of who she was. Even before Alzheimer’s claimed her memories, she seemed lost. Her eyes would glance up at the wall covered in medals and certificates and photos. Unlike her husband, who somehow found the strength to go on, her life seemed to stop. There was before and then there was everything else. Death was almost a relief for her shattered heart.

They had a daughter. And grandchildren. And they were never enough to erase the pain of a son who gave his life in a war that divided this country. He died in Vietnam at the age of 22. He’d barely begun to live before his body arrived home in a flag-draped casket.

We rarely think of the cost of war unless it impacts us directly. We prefer to keep it at a distance, supporting from afar because we can’t grasp the pain it can cause. Is it any wonder so many soldiers question their faith and, if they’re fortunate, draw closer to God as they dodge bullets and bombs?

What else is there? Who else is there? In a war zone, there is no such thing as safe. Every moment is a risk. God is our strength, our rock, our peace, to those who serve and to those left behind.

My cousin never came home in the way we had hoped. Instead, he went to the Home we all long. There is comfort in that. On days like today, we remember those who died and we give thanks that they lived.