In Memorial

	Writing this page with the knowledge that many, from
other countries who read my words might not fully
understand, I still have to share my honest thoughts
as I return to publishing the Daily Thought. This past
Monday was set for the day my family would get
together in so much as it was possible, and my son
called to say he was bringing flags with him for a
special mission.
	At ten a.m. my father, uncle, brother and son piled
into a van and made a journey. First we went to the
gravesite where uncles Leonard and Grady had their
passing marked. One of them had his physical remains
there, but the other’s body lies in a grave in
Holland. One died at the age of 21 cut in two by a
machine gun, the other survived Pearl Harbor and
Guadalcanal and three wounds to die in a car wreck not
long after he returned home. Then we went to
Clarence’s grave some miles away. At each we posted an
American flag beside the grave markers.
	At the cemetery where Leonard and Grady’s lives were
recorded, I removed my headgear and with my cover in
hand I remarked that if the Lord tarried long it was
my hope that we would never bring forth progeny in our
line that would forget their heritage. On this
continent alone, our family name now has nearly four
hundred years of history (1611), and it has marched
across the pages of seldom remarked history in other
lands as well. And I would not forget those other
lines, which converge to make the generation that now
exists either. How many thousands of lost stories and
experiences those lives consist of? Only God can say.
	We offered no prayers as the four of us stood by
those gravesites. Each recalled his own time of
military service and listened as my dad and uncle
spoke of the dead brothers’ lives. As I stood beside
the grave marked of the man my father called the
“bravest man he ever knew,” it occurred to me that for
all my uncles’ daring do and for all those that have
gone before only one thing really matters. Did they
know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior when their
soul was called into eternity? In the end that is the
only thing that matters concerning us all.