Today is of course Memorial Day and I guess I’m adding to the glutton of Memorial Day blog posts that celebrate the day, but it’s a day worth celebrating. My family celebrated with a meal, pictured in this post along with the photos of my dad and Uncle about the time they were commissioned, and my grandfather who also served in the Army.

Today, our culture seems to have this tendency to sweep death and sacrifice away to the point where we don’t even understand anymore how difficult it was to obtain the freedom we have, and at what price many people paid to give us that freedom. My family has a long list of those who served in the military, going all the way back to the Civil War (with the South). Both my dad and my Uncle (604th Air Force Band), and both my grandfather’s were in the Army, one flew bombers in WWII, and the other (Don Fillmer) was in the European Theater. According to Don Fillmer’s Discharge Papers from the Army in 1944 he was in the 101st Airways Communications Squadron, and was given the European African Middle Eastern Service Medal upon his discharge in 1944.

While I was not in the military, I recognize their sacrifice, and others, who served those of us who now enjoying the freedom and prosperity they fought to give us. I can’t help but think about the ultimate sacrifice made for us by Christ, who willingly put himself in harm’s way, so that we may be able to enjoy an eternal life with God. There is no greater “Memorial Day” celebration than to have been given life through someone else’s death. Our military did that for us for the past 200 years, and Christ did that for us for the past 2,000 years.

We should recognize both for what they are, not hesitating to honor a person, or people, who have given their life, so that we may live. Pictured below from left to right top down is the Fillmer family (Larry, Dale, Deborah, and myself), Deborah, then Allen Fillmer, Donald Fillmer (my granddad), Larry Fillmer, and Les Fillmer (my uncle).