Do This In Rememberance....

Going to the cemetery is a family tradition on Memorial Day. We pack flowers and visit the graves of our loved ones that have gone on before us. This is not a practice that is secretly done by only us. It is something millions of Americans do.

Until I met my wife and married into her family it was not something I did. I was a lost sinner, who had no foundation and no sense of belonging. It is strange to look back on those years and see myself, then to look at so many young people today. The sense of "life has no meaning" is all too strong in our nation's life.

I pray that we parents give our children their past. To teach them diligently the history of our nation and the beliefs of our founders is essential. I believe in so doing we will give them a sense for who they are and a purpose in this life. They will be able to identify themselves with God's purposes for this nation. Perhaps even a sense of patriotism?

Great aunt Ella is 97 years old. My children just love her. She lives just around the block from us, and the kids drop in to visit her once in a while. A few years ago, her husband Howard Long passed away. My children remember him. They remember that he was a believer in Christ and lived a quiet godly life. They remember the funeral and how Aunt Ella just wept and said, "This is the worst day in my whole life." Steven especially remembers that moment of tears and sadness.

Yesterday, as we have done every year since his death, we go to his graveside and put flowers by his gravestone. I then gather my two children together and explain how one day there will be a loud command of God and a shout of the Arch angel and the trumpet of God. This event will be so loud and overpowering that the dead will rise. Uncle Howard will rise right in the spot of his grave and be gathered together with all of God's people to Christ.

My son while somewhat sad is heartened to be able to trust in a powerful Savior, who is able to raise the dead with His voice. My daughter in her 5 year old voice says she will enjoy meeting her grandmothers who are also buried in the same area. It will truly be a time to rejoice.

For now, it is good enough that my children learn and remember the purposes of God in our family's past, in our nations past and in Christianity's past. For now, I pray they would gain a sense of belonging in God's family. May the Spirit speak to our children's hearts as He has done for so many other previous generations.