VOICES OF D-DAY
(Friday, June 6, 2008)
Matthew 24:6-7 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of
wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but
the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
John 8:36; 14:27 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye
shall be free indeed. … Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not
as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither
let it be afraid.
James 4:1-3
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even
of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and
desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because
ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume
it upon your lusts.
As is my custom in memorializing, I reviewed
some history of this day. One interesting item is the account of a French woman
that lived in a chateau overlooking the Normandy beaches. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/dday.htm
June 6, 1944, was and remains a momentous
day. How well I remember my excitement as an 8 and a half year old boy when the
news came. The fringed star banners in front windows, especially the gold star
ones, increased in meaning as neighbors gathered on lawns to talk, speculating
“It won’t be long now!”
Glorious thinking, but if only they knew the
price: “For the Americans, Omaha [beach] was a near-suicide mission. First, a
powerful undertow swept away lives and weapons; ten landing craft with
twenty-six artillery guns and twenty-two of twenty-nine tanks were swamped.
Then, they faced a maelstrom of bullets. Within ten minutes of landing every
officer and sergeant of the 116th Regiment was dead or wounded. Yet, by 10:00
a.m., as Americans received the first news of D-Day, 300 men had struggled
through mortar fire, across the body and equipment strewn beach, and up a bluff
to attack the German defenses. By nightfall, the Allies had a toehold on the
continent, yet, on "Bloody Omaha" alone, 3,000 Americans lay dead.“ http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jun06.html
The media had different attitude then,
agreeing not to reveal the horrible losses lest the American populace be
discouraged. (Pictures of dead American GIs were withheld while such photos of
German and Japanese soldiers were widely published.) Year’s later historians
published the terrible facts.
WWII is but one of many battles mankind has
fought, not the first, and certainly not the last.
Wars are fought for many man-given reasons,
not the least of which is to gain or maintain “freedom”.
God, in James 4, explains the base why of
war; man’s selfishness. In many ways this includes “freedom”, for what is it
but the desire to live free as we please.
Indeed let us hear the voices that have
observed and suffered war that hopefully we shall never forget.
Of utmost importance is that we hear and heed
the call of the only one that provides the only true personal freedom and peace
in the midst of this warring world, Jesus.
EBB4
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