Last week I had the experience of a lifetime! I was going to visit the American Cemetery at Normandy overlooking Omaha Beach. Prior to that, we went to a Normandy Museum to see the old newsreels of the execution of the invasion on D-Day. The scope of the effort of preparation was almost unimaginable. It gave me a new appreciation of the planning and creativity that went into what became the turning point of the war in Europe.
Upon arrival, you are struck by the beauty and solemnity, and emotion that the setting evokes. You walk into the cemetery where thousands of pure white crosses and Stars of David stand before you. As you walk through the gravesites and see both the names of the fallen and the graves of those "Known Only To God", you cannot help being overcome by emotion.
You have a chance to walk to the bluff where the Germans held the high ground with enormous firepower. You look down on the beach where our troops came ashore under withering fire, taking the lives of many even before they made it to the beach. You imagine the chaos and deafening sounds of battle from both sides. You think of eighteen-year-old "boys" and the terror that must have been felt. Still, they came forward and eventually won the day.
At two-thirty that day our group assembled at the memorial for a presentation. I was standing in the middle of the crowd when a young lady who was serving as the host came forward carrying a wreath. She stopped directly in front of me. She asked if I would place the wreath on the memorial! I was stunned and overcome with emotion. As I walked forward, carrying the wreath, the tears flowed freely. As I knelt with doffed cap, I was overcome by an intense sense of gratitude for those brave soldiers' sacrifices that enabled the freedoms that I enjoy today. As I returned to my place, the crowd turned and face the cemetery and began singing "The Star-Spangled Banner", I could barely choke out the words because of the tears I shed.
Upon reflection, later on, it struck me that, as great as those sacrifices were and what they meant to the freedom in our world, there was one sacrificial death that gave us a chance at a freedom that would be eternal, a freedom from the rightly deserved penalty of our sin and everlasting death. Jesus' death on the Cross was that sacrifice!
Better still, His victory over death in His resurrection was an even greater victory than the victory of D-Day. His victory can be your victory if you appropriate by faith the acceptance of His life, death, and resurrection and commit yourself to become His follower and acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior.
Have a
blessed celebration of Christ’s Resurrection!
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