Wept

And when he thought thereon, he wept. (Mark 14:72 KJV)

Sunday, we wept, as a congregation. We listened to a Marine sergeant speak of his reasons for service to his county, but we did not weep. We listened to more than one story of veterans, from veterans, but we did not weep

We heard from a girl who at age five waved her father off to war. Sunday, sixty-three years later, she sang the song she wrote, and we heard the lasting pain from that five-year old child. And, we felt that pain.

But the kicker was the CD made by the Heartland Baptist Bible College’s Glory Bound Quartet, Witness! Ensemble and Assurance Trio, “It Has Always Been The Soldier.” It played. And, we wept.

We are where we are today in America because good men fought, and died, for what they believed.

It wasn’t the politicians, or the pamphlet writers, who released this country from English rule. It was the citizen soldiers who left their farms, their businesses, their families. My ancestors among them. We need to teach our children of the freedom they sought.

It wasn’t the elected officials, the underground railroad, the authors, who deleted slavery from the United States. It was the citizen solders who left their farms, their businesses, their families. And our nation is better for it. We need to remember why freedom for everyone was important.

It wasn’t the negotiators, the statesmen, the signers of treaties, who ended the first World War. It was the citizen solders who left their farms, their businesses, their families. And they thought it could not happen again, that freedom would not be lost.

When it did, when Axis powers worked to split the world into pieces, it was the citizen solders who left their farms, their businesses, their families that fought against genocide. And, they still do.

Truly, it has always been the soldier who fights the wars that others start. Let us remember them this coming Veterans Day. Those who didn’t come home as well as the ones living with us today.

And, when we think thereon, we weep. We call to mind each of the veterans who have looked out for their fellow citizens and say “Thank you for taking care of us, friend.”

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13 KJV)