D-Day thoughts

Today marks one of the biggest days of World History. D-Day. Go Day for Operation: Neptune. When 156,000 Allied Forces rushed the beaches of Normandy to make the initial attacks on Nazi forces. 209,000 allies died this day in 1944.

But I ask these questions. What were they fighting for? What did they die for?

Before we speak of D-Day and the reasons around it. let's look higher: to the moon.

There were 6 United States Flags placed on the Lunar Surface by NASA Astronauts. All but one of them still stands, the one excluded was the original, which was placed too close to the Lunar Lander, and was blown away when the spacecraft lifted off from the Moon Surface.

"For forty-odd years, the flags have been exposed to the full fury of the Moon's environment – alternating 14 days of searing sunlight and 100° C heat with 14 days of numbing-cold -150° C darkness. But even more damaging is the intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the pure unfiltered sunlight on the cloth (modal) from which the Apollo flags were made. Even on Earth, the colors of a cloth flag flown in bright sunlight for many years will eventually fade and need to be replaced. So it is likely that these symbols of American achievement have been rendered blank, bleached white by the UV radiation of unfiltered sunlight on the lunar surface. Some of them may even have begun to physically disintegrate under the intense flux."

- Lunar Scientist Paul Spudis

In other words, after all these years on the Moon, the red and blue of the Ol' Red White and Blue have faded away leaving only a white cloth.

I'm sure you're siting there thinking, what does the flags on the moon have to do with D-Day and those who gave their lives on that beach, and then through the nightmares of World War II? Bear with me here...

Let's jump to 2018, and see the world we have today. The United States we have today. First off I have to say I'm a patriotic person. I love the United States, it is my second home, next only to Heaven, and I consider it the second greatest country in the world (I feel the achievements of Israel narrowly tops us in level and years it took to accomplish these things)

But we have a movement in recent years of hyper-patriotism. We place this country and especially the flag held high in a way it was not intended to be held. It and our American rights have become an idol to many.

We attack those who kneel or even just are accused of kneeling during national anthems. We want to put America first and just let those outside our boarders fend for themselves, and we adopt that mindset to our personal lives, adopting the "Old Number 1" mentality, and treat others as people either out to stop us, get in our way, or as stepping stones for our own progress.

Is that why 6603 American soldiers gave their lives on Normandy Beach? Did they go to war for a red white and blue colored cloth? No. The flag is nothing but a piece of cloth that can and will fade and be destroyed. They went to war to fight and die for the idea behind it. The idea that Thomas Jefferson stated and penned in 1776, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that ALL MEN are created EQUAL; and they are endowed by their  Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

World War II was a war between Allies, including the United States, making a stand against the Axis, Germany, Japan and Italy, who personally believed a certain type of people were better than others, and everyone else had to submit to them, and/or die. So many from the United States and our allies stood against them and fought back.

They weren't fighting for a flag. They were fighting to say that men women and children had a right to freedom.

The American Soldiers fought and died for the idea behind the Flag of the United States, behind the Declaration of Independence, behind the Constitution, Behind the United States itself.

They stood as representatives to an Idea that was formed in 1776. That idea is Freedom. A dream that we could live in a world where we were free to live without the fear of tyrants and oppression.

They didn't fight for an eagle or some pretty cloth with stripes and stars sown on it. They fought and died willing to sacrifice their lives because they believed in something greater than that.

So this June 6, 2018, and every day after. If you want to honor their sacrifice, then stop worshiping the flag.

If you want to honor them: Love your neighbor.

If you want to honor them: Put aside your pride and be there for someone who stands alone.

If you want to honor them: Listen to your neighbor and realize just because you may not share their struggles and troubles, doesn't mean theirs is any less real or meaningful.

If you want to honor them: Put yourself to the side, and lift up God and love others around you, regardless of their political or religious beliefs.

"But Yeshua called them to Him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.  It shall Not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to Serve, and to give his life as ransom for many." Matthew 20: 26-28

May Yahweh bless this country and may we always lift up our neighbors and be a light of freedom, and may the Christians continue to shine the light of true freedom through Yeshua the Messiah. May Yahweh bless the soldiers who risk their lives, and their families who also serve, waiting often with fear wondering if their fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters or cousins will return home from war. And may they be protected and return home safely.

In Yeshua's name, Amen.