When You Can't Help but Remember

Standing high upon the hill, majestic, strong, sturdy, chiseled out of stone, a monument to the past for the future.  Bridging time.

Its towering walls arch high above as I walk close.  I feel small.  Insignificant. 
Quietness fills space and time. 

My hand reaches out to raised letters of cool metal.  I stare long, reading words affixed to stone. 

Words spoken by a man long ago, on this hill.
Words living on, arching through time, remembering...

"And here
in this place 
of sacrifice
in this vale of humiliation
in this valley of the shadow
of that death out of which

the life of America rose
regenerate and free
let us believe
with an abiding faith
that to them
union will seem as dear

and liberty as sweet
and progress as glorious
as they were to our fathers

and are to you and me 
and that the institutions

which have made us happy
persevered by the
virtue of our children
shall bless

the remotest generation 
of the time to come."
- Henry Armitt Brown
(1878, at the 100 year anniversary of breaking winter encampment at Valley Forge)



...a few of the blessed and grateful 'generation of the time to come'...

This Memorial Day, I will remember afresh with gratitude, those in my family and beyond who have made the sacrifice...for the people in their time and the generations to come.



A Personal Reflection
One day after I stood underneath this arch that bridged time, a good friend, who had also been on the field trip, and I spoke.  Our thoughts wove through time.  Having tried to imagine what it would have been like to live during those times, we began questioning ourselves, asking, would we have made the sacrifice?  And for our present times and beyond: what sacrifices are we making for others in these present times, for the generations to come, and for eternity?

“He [God] made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;” Acts 17:26-27 NASB

to read in context: Acts 17

Dear Lord,
You have set me in this place, this time,
for Your purposes.
May You use my life to its fullest intent,
and may my heart be receptive to do 
all the good works you have laid before me.
Amen