Week 46

Remembrance Day

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace."

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NIV

(written by King Solomon, late in his life - probably around 935 B.C.)

     Is there ever a time for hate or war?  We are commanded  to "love our enemies,"  but we certainly are to "hate" injustice, mistreatment and worse evils.  Today is a day to remember the sacrifice of many young soldiers and to celebrate the freedom and peace that we enjoy today in Canada because of them.  We need to pray for areas in the world where that peace still does not exist and do our best to make this world a better place.  

     My father was a Canadian soldier during WWII.  The following is an excerpt from one of the letters he wrote home to his mother from England on Sept 15, 1943, when he was not quite 21 years old.  "Somehow or other, I haven't much desire to get in to action, whether cowardice on my part, or not, I don't know.  More, I think that I don't want to hurt anyone, and war certainly hurts.  I have no fear, however, for I am in good hands - thank God for that."  In this same letter he mentions that things were "shaping up nicely for the end of the war."  Well, he didn't return home to his family until Jan of 1946...Thankfully, he did return home, which was not the case for many soldiers.

     My dad passed away in January 2009 at the age of 86, and I remember him with love today.

     

 

                  A cenotaph in front the beautifully maintained old Town Hall in Paisley, Ontario            Aug 2013

My father (23 years old) in Holland in 1945

My father, 50 years later, visiting Groesbeek Cemetery in Holland during "Thank You Canada" celebrations
 in 1995

My father (84) and my oldest son (21), who was then in the Canadian Military, leading the Remembrance Day parade, in the rain, out to the cenotaph in my home town in 2006
(my youngest son, then almost 11, is carrying the Canadian flag)

                                                      So proud to be Canadian!                                                Nov 3, 2013