WE stood for a minute’s silence on Remembrance Day [Armistice Day] to remember!
To remember all those who had fought for their country in all the conflicts and wars since the early part of the 20th century, and how so many never returned home.
I remembered that my own father had left Australia in 1916 to fight in the trenches in horrible battles in France and Belgium during the First World War and how he was one of those who was able to return home in 1919, whilst many of his fellow soldiers’ bodies lay buried on those battlefields.
I remembered that my wife Carole’s uncle Clifford Carol Tapsell whom she was never to meet, who had gone from India to join the British Army, being killed by a sniper in Europe just a few days before the end of the war in 1918 and later reading how his family in India longed to know more about the circumstances of his death.
I remembered that my nephew Matthew who was standing in front of me in this service, had served two tours of duty as a medical doctor as a Major in the Australian Army in Afghanistan and I wondered what he would be remembering about his time in Afghanistan, on this particular Remembrance Day.
A personal memory
But this particular Remembrance Day in 2019 was deeply personal for me. We were standing in our local church and the Remembrance Day service was taking place as part of the service as we began the Thanksgiving Service for my wife Carole who had gone home to the Lord just 11 days previously. It seemed to be so appropriate that on a day when millions of people throughout the world take time to remember loved ones who had gone to war and how so many had never returned home and families had been so traumatised as a result, that we as a family could remember with deep thanksgiving the love that Carole had poured out on us all. We had been the recipients of God’s love flowing through her to us, for me for almost 54 years and for all their lives for our children and grandchildren.
Every Remembrance Day in the future will have for me, this added dimension of deep, deep thanksgiving to God for the beautiful godly young woman he brought into my life all those years ago, and for the love, meaning and purpose she imparted into the lives of perhaps thousands of people around the world during her time on earth.
What a privilege it is to have loved ones who were willing to die for us, and so many did make that ultimate sacrifice for us. Lest we forget!
But what a privilege it is also for us to have those who were willing to live their lives for us, sacrificing so much in seeking to bring God’s love and blessing into our lives. We will never forget!
Blog No.372 posted on www.jimholbeck.blog on Remembrance [Armistice] Day 11th November 2020.
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