Happy Fourth of July!


This week we were browsing in a shop when Momma spotted a man wearing a Vietnam Veteran hat. As is her custom, she walked over to him and asked, "Are you a veteran? Thank you so much for your sacrifice!" We girls all gathered around to shake his hand and thank him.

"Thank you" he said. "I served in Vietnam three times, and when I came back I was spit on three times. Thank you!"

His wife overheard and thanked us, as well. "He's my hero" she said looking sweetly up at him. "Well, we really appreciate the freedoms that you and others sacrificed so much for" Momma told him.

"You are welcome. I just hope that we don't loose them." He sadly shook his head as he turned away.

This weekend I also watched a ceremony where veterans lined up to raise the American flag, say the pledge and sing the national anthemn. I always get choked up during that ceremony and can't look up at the flag without crying. I looked at the men in front of me who had given so much that I might be free.

Then I noticed a little girl about six years old clinging to her father's leg as they pledged allegiance to the flag. She had joined him in those lines of veterans, and I began to see the other men fade in the distance.

Behind the flag I could envision a soldier fighting with bombs all around him; what all had that soldier been through? Yet there he stood with his little daughter pledging to the flag beside him, and I thought

It must have been worth it all...for this moment!

Let us not loose what has been so dearly bought, and God grant that we might not hesitate when our turn may come to give our very lives or the lives of those we love for such a cause!


~Picture from Smithsonian Images "Desert Storm USO fireworks are saluted by military personnal at a homecoming ceremony on the Mall."

1 comment:

JTR said...

Wonderful. LOVE THIS.