Some reflections on Memorial Day
“I wasn’t afraid of the bombs.
To me, nighttime air raids over Glasgow (Scotland) were just the way life was—noisy, but not frightening. I accepted them the same way I accepted food shortages and soldiers in the streets; British and American uniforms side by side. At the first wail of the sirens I would climb into a chair beside the window to watch the city black out street by street, until all I could see was the flicker of flashlights as wardens went from house to house checking blackout curtains.
As far as I knew, life had never been any different. Outside I could hear men shouting, firefighting equipment rumbling by. Sometimes there would be earth-rocking explosions as bombs struck the Clyde Bank shipyards nearby. We often donned our gas masks and hurried to the bomb shelter beneath our building. Often time we did not and my Dad said we had to trust the Lord as the bombs dropped around us and the anti-aircraft fire from the roof of the adjoining building shot at the German planes in the night sky.”
Those are my childhood memories I wrote in my book Scott Free a number of years ago.
My dad lost four brothers in the so called Great War of World War 1. One brother had amnesia and didn’t show up until over fifty years later in England. No one knows where he had been. That’s another story. My Dad lied about his age and enlisted in the British army at seventeen years of age to get revenge on the Germans. There are numerous stories of God’s supernatural intervention in his life that saved him, both physically, and spiritually. My maternal grandfather was an officer in the British army and survived, but not without “shell shock” as they called it then.
Memorial Day is more than beer parties and the beginning of summer; and Thanksgiving Day more than turkey; it should be a time to express gratitude to God and the men & women who gave their all.
As an immigrant son to America from Scotland, I just want to say thank you, and with Winston Churchill salute those who gave their “blood, sweat, and tears.”
As filmmaker Ken Burns stated after completing his masterful film series on World War II:
“Instead of the shared sacrifices World War II demanded that created community and made us spiritually richer, we’re so lacking today. We aren’t asked to give up anything. We’re narcissistic free agents. Surfing the Internet alone. Watching TV alone. Driving alone. There’s too much Pluribus and not enough Unum.”
My prayer: “Come, see the glorious works of the Lord…who causes wars to end throughout the earth, He breaks the bow and snaps the spear in two; He burns the shields with fire.” (Psalm 46.8-9)
God hasten the day, I pray.
Scott Ross