Memorial Day

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.

Julia Ward Howe wrote the words to the battle hymn of the republic when she awoke in the middle of the night with the words in her head and quickly wrote them down before returning back to bed. The words of this song always stir some emotions for me and I love to hear it. I think the words are especially fitting to honor who Memorial Day is all about, those who died to make us free. I pray that we will all work together to Live to make men free by taking advantage of our freedoms and not letting them be lost.

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.

Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars take donations for poppies in the days leading up to Memorial Day. The reason poppy's signify Memorial Day is due to John McCrae poem "In Flanders Fields." In the poem, poppies are mentioned because they grew in abundance over the battlefields and graves where war casualties were buried.