I am American, but I am also South Vietnamese. On one of my trips to California, I visited this memorial in Westminster, commemorating the fallen soldiers of the Vietnam War (though in Vietnam, they refer to it as the American War). This is one of the few memorials that commemorates both American and South Vietnamese soldiers. I am so grateful for the memorial because the fallen South Vietnamese soldiers are, of course, not memorialized in Vietnam, as they were the defeated "enemy." Only in the hearts of their friends and family, the South Vietnamese people, and the Americans who helped them are they honored.
I once ran with a pacer for a half marathon who was a Marine. When I thanked him for his service, he told me that he considered it an honor to serve his country. An honor to serve and die for his country. I thought about how his parents must have felt when he signed up to serve, and how they felt when he was deployed.
God sent us His Son, knowing not just that He would die for all of us, but that He would die a horrible death on earth and then experience hell for all of our sins. People don't like talking about hell, but it's the absence of love and hope. It's nothing like anything we've ever experienced on earth. It's as if we took all of the worst things that could happen on earth--Hitler and atomic bombs and abused children and torture--and then multiplied them by 1000. And that might only be the tip of the iceberg of how horrible hell is.When I think of the sacrifice of Christ, I think not only of the torture and brutality that He suffered at the hands of humans, but the experience of hell that He suffered for all of our sins. This is not something I can take lightly, and yet, it something I have to be constantly reminded of, as I go through my days and the impact of that knowledge lessens through time.
The sacrifice of Christ dwarfs all of the trivialities of my life--the rude person who cut me off in traffic, the idiot who just insulted me, the "friend" who intentionally hurt me. I'm not saying that we humans don't experience true loss, pain and grief--not at all. But for me, what sometimes consumes me are the little losses and pains, the things that I can and should overlook and forgive without a second glance.
May we all celebrate the sacrifice of others as we reflect daily on the sacrifice of Jesus.
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." 1 John 3: 16
I once ran with a pacer for a half marathon who was a Marine. When I thanked him for his service, he told me that he considered it an honor to serve his country. An honor to serve and die for his country. I thought about how his parents must have felt when he signed up to serve, and how they felt when he was deployed.
God sent us His Son, knowing not just that He would die for all of us, but that He would die a horrible death on earth and then experience hell for all of our sins. People don't like talking about hell, but it's the absence of love and hope. It's nothing like anything we've ever experienced on earth. It's as if we took all of the worst things that could happen on earth--Hitler and atomic bombs and abused children and torture--and then multiplied them by 1000. And that might only be the tip of the iceberg of how horrible hell is.When I think of the sacrifice of Christ, I think not only of the torture and brutality that He suffered at the hands of humans, but the experience of hell that He suffered for all of our sins. This is not something I can take lightly, and yet, it something I have to be constantly reminded of, as I go through my days and the impact of that knowledge lessens through time.
The sacrifice of Christ dwarfs all of the trivialities of my life--the rude person who cut me off in traffic, the idiot who just insulted me, the "friend" who intentionally hurt me. I'm not saying that we humans don't experience true loss, pain and grief--not at all. But for me, what sometimes consumes me are the little losses and pains, the things that I can and should overlook and forgive without a second glance.
May we all celebrate the sacrifice of others as we reflect daily on the sacrifice of Jesus.
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." 1 John 3: 16
(Flags are kind of like kites, right?)
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