For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Eighty-one years ago, this June 6th, the largest invasion
armada that man has ever known sailed from the coast of England to the shores
of Normandy France. This armada went to free the people of France from
occupation, and to free the world from bonds of war. We can never thank our
veterans enough, some of them in their late nineties.
As I write this week’s blog, I would like to come at D-Day
and World War II from a different perspective. The perspective that I write
about, is the perspective from the eyes of a child, in this case the eyes
belong to my mother.
My Mother grew up in England, with her young years as being
a witness to a country at war and a world at war. From my earliest memories I
would hear my mother speak about her time as a child spent in the family’s air-raid
shelter, sitting out bombing raids on her country. I would hear the stories of
her and her siblings wearing gas mask packs, as they would venture to and from
school. I would hear of the stories of my grandfather going into London after
bombing raids to free the dead and wounded from the rubble of bombed out buildings.
I would hear about the sound that V-1 and V-2 rockets sound like when the fly
over your head and what it is like when the sound stops before they fall to the
ground and explode. I would hear about my grandparents considering shipping my
mom and her siblings overseas as to escape the war. I would hear about the kids
getting candy from the United States soldiers, and the words, “Got Any Gum Chum”.
I would hear about the near starvation of a country as it was blockaded during
the war, and what it was like to be hungry. I saw first hand what it was like as a child when the fear came over my adult mothers eyes when the severe weather sirens (not air-raid) would sound in Moline Illinois. And finally, I would hear about a
young eight-year-old girl named "Mary" looking up to the sky as the largest
invasion force that man has ever known, flew over her head on the way to
France.
My friends, June 6, 1944 is much more than a day, it is a
time when the world was freed from tyranny. Hopefully the beginning of the end in which children would see the
horrific sight of war firsthand.
Today’s text from Romans, speaks to our learning from history
for our instruction, and that because of God’s Word we have a hope that these
sights will never again be witnesses by our children. Additionally, we learn
from history about the brave people that fought and died for our freedom, in
the hopes that they would be that last to have to go out and fight and die. That this would be the last war to end the horrible sights that children see.
Unfortunately, this is not the case and war and its horrible
images exist to this very day. Let us thank those brave men that battled,
fought, and won on D-Day 1944, and let us continue to follow God’s Word and
learn from history, and to continue in "His Hope."
Thank you, Veterans, and those who never came home from
those shores. And thank you Mom, for sharing the stories of what your eyes saw,
with me.
This is the Day that the Lord has made. Pastor Tim.
