While relatives on my side of the family have not been close, the grown kids and a few cousins have discussed engraving our dad’s name among other veterans in the little town where he grew up. The project was completed and the names read at the local VFW post today. The project brought memories. Dad would seldom talk about the war (WW2). We (the children) knew some of the memories were traumatic. He also lost a brother in the Pacific Campaign. So, parts of the family suddenly had no son or brother. I served in the Navy decades later when some of my generation served in the Vietnam War. A decade after that, I remember a man my age explaining a traumatic scene in the same conflict as a fellow soldier slipped away from life. Just last month a chaplain in the Army, who attends the same church I do, honored a lost soldier and friend in a post on social media. I could tell. The loss still hurts.
Memorials don’t seem adequate, but I respect the effort and honor the day (Memorial Day), even if the salve does not seem to cover the loss or wounds.
Consider a different kind of soldier for a moment. I know many of these stories, too. A family in Nigeria is killed for believing Jesus Christ. There is nothing to go back to. The church was burned; the house was destroyed. Several families are simply ‘no more’. The same thing happened in little towns in Iraq over a decade ago. Similar things are happening in Iran. Events like this are occurring in several places around the world. Even when death is not the final blow properties are confiscated, fathers or mothers are taken for interrogation somewhere. Some never return. Some, when they do return, often after months of imprisonment, are not the same. It was just for believing or worshipping the One who created the universe and died for their sins. The ones who share the joy of believing Christ with others seem to be the object of even more trauma. The survivors are frequently in regions where persecution is ongoing, so the repercussions continue.
Our little home group studied the New Testament where scenes of persecution and/or death of believers are mentioned. Those scenes are common but sometimes do not seem real today in regions that have had peace for a while. This kind of experience seems foreign but, in truth, is all too common through the centuries. The numbers of affected people are increasing.
There will be no VFW memorial for these kinds of soldiers, but there will be something greater in the end. They are not forgotten by the One who gave them breath on this earth. He will gather them again with all the rest of the brothers and sisters for whom He died.
Selah.
