Should We “Celebrate” Memorial Day?

Celebrate. Sacrifice. Two words we don’t usually pair together.

Still, two days on our calendar have been set aside to do just that. To celebrate sacrifice. Not with joy, but with solemnity, honor, and gratitude. Because we’re not actually celebrating sacrifice, we’re celebrating what the sacrifice accomplished.

One of those days is coming up this next week: Memorial Day. In honor of this day, you may recognize some of these quotes:

• “Home of the free, thanks to the brave.”
• “A veteran is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to ‘The United States of America’ for any amount, up to and including their life.”
• “Service in our armed forces demands a depth of character. Men and women who can reach deep within themselves and draw upon an inner strength, borne of faith, have always carried the day against those of lesser character. When the battlefield is chaotic and horror is all about, it is those who have taken care to build their character who emerge victorious” (Tom Neven, On the Frontline).
• “To those who serve, thank you.”
• “Freedom isn’t free.”
• “Land of the free, because of the brave.”
• “God has blessed America with freedom but the Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine have preserved it for us at the cost of their service and their lives.”

Another Day

There’s one more day on the calendar when we celebrate sacrifice: Good Friday. In honor of that day, you may also recognize these verses:

• “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
• “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).
• “So the Christ also, having been once offered in sacrifice in order that He might bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, separated from sin, to those who are eagerly expecting Him, to make their salvation complete” (Hebrews 9:28).
• “We have been set free from sin, through the offering of Jesus Christ as our sacrifice once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).
• “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
•  “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

Solemnly celebrate and honor the great sacrifice commemorated each Memorial Day, knowing men and women shed their blood for your earthly freedom.

Honor and solemnly celebrate the great sacrifice commemorated each Good Friday, knowing a restored relationship with God is possible because Christ shed His blood for our freedom from sin.

As we enjoy the holiday celebration with family and friends, let’s be reminded of the sacrifices that made such a day possible. And let it remind us of another sacrifice—an eternal one.

A reminder to be twice grateful this weekend.