| I will never forget that phone call. It came at 11pm at a time when no-one phoned after 9pm unless it was an emergency. I will never forget the look of fear, shock, and grief on my mom’s face as she took the call. I will never forget the feelings of horror and grief as my mom told 9-year-old me that my dad’s unit had driven into an ambush, his vehicle detonating a landmine, and they did not know if he was alive or dead.
Dad was a soldier, a corporal in the Rhodesian Light Infantry. He fought in the Rhodesian bush war in Southern Africa. He was fighting to protect our country from communism, corruption, an unjust government, and tyranny. He was also fighting for freedom, so I could pursue the career I desired, freedom to vote and have a say in how our country was governed, for freedom! He believed so much in what he was fighting for and fought so bravely until that horror-filled night when his vehicle rode over that landmine. The blast threw him and two others from the vehicle. Shocked and shaken, in the chaos and confusion of the moment, amidst smoke and screams and gunfire, they set up a protective perimeter where they repelled an attack for two hours until reinforcements and help arrived.
Dad would never be the same. He was left deaf in his right ear, had a permanent shake in his hands, and would jump at any sudden sounds, like a door slamming. He would carry these scars in his body and mind until he went home to be with the Lord in 1988. This was the price that freedom in our country demanded. Freedom is costly and, to have it, someone always has to pay the price.
As I think upon that freedom so dearly fought for and won with such great sacrifice, I cannot help but wonder how do we honour them who paid so dearly for a freedom that they themselves would never get to enjoy?
Our greatest dishonour, to those who paid so dearly, is to forget, to forget the price they paid, to forget their sacrifice in the great wars of WWI and WWII, to forget the parents who would never see their sons again or children who said a final goodby to their dad or the women who became widows for freedom’s sake.
And so we honour them by remembering them, “At the rising of the sun and it’s going down, we shall remember them.”
Freedom costs so much and demands such a high price – Just ask God!
| We were enslaved to our sin and driven by selfishness. We were weighed down by a burden of guilt and shame and unable to save or help ourselves. We were without hope. We could not pay the price to set ourselves free.
And then there is Jesus. Galatians 5:1 states that, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free”, and Romans 5:6-8 reminds us that, “…while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die, but God shows His love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice and the willing payment of His life covered the cost demanded by our sin and set us free. Freedom is never free; it comes at great cost! We honour that freedom by remembering. This is one of the reasons we celebrate the Lord’s Supper; so that we remember His sacrifice for our freedom.
I was blessed that Dad, although scarred and wounded, came home. So many just like him did not. All for the sake of freedom, and so I take a moment every year at this time to remember, to remember Dad, to remember his sacrifice, to remember my freedom.
Friends, can I urge you to take some time today and over this weekend to think and remember the cost of our freedom, both spiritual and physical? give thanks to God for the price He paid for our spiritual freedom. Secondly, give thanks to God for the brave men and women who have paid a price for our freedoms that we enjoy every day here in Canada. Pray for our armed forces and those that stand on guard for us. Pray for our country. Pray for our freedoms, which will never be free but demand a great price. |
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