Remembering

In Canada, we're celebrating Remembrance Day today (akin to the US's Veteran's Day, of course). I think it is mostly an overlooked holiday in the US--just a day off from school and the banks are closed. It seems to be a little more meaningful here. Poppies were around in the States, but here they're almost ubiquitous right now. And they started coming out in full force three weeks ago. The Canadians have a special pride over their part in the World Wars--which I think is largely overlooked. So poppies are on everyone's lapel. The symbol of the poppy on Remembrance/Veteran's Day comes from a poem entitled In Flanders Fields that a Canadian named John McCrae wrote while fighting in Belgium amidst a field of poppies (it's printed on the $10 bill in Canada):

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

So, for my grandfathers (and the many others both now and throughout history) who both served their countries to secure the freedoms we have and secure the liberties of others who were under oppression, I pause to give them honour and to pray for peace in a world that does not need any more destruction brought about in it.












Coincidentally (if you believe there are coincidences), today is also the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. There are more martyrs in today than at any other point in history.

Let we forget.