Mon, Nov. 11
... On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, we remember
Remembrance Day again. I really love this holiday... it's not a big commercial holiday, and you don't generally get Remembrance Day parades, floats, sales, cards, or ornaments, but it's one of the most meaningful holidays. Obviously, Christmas and Easter are the most significant, because they have everything to do with faith--the reasons behind them are so much more enduring than anything else--but of all the political holidays, Remembrance Day is the one that means more than just a day off.
When I was in elementary school, junior high, and high school, we'd have Remembrance Day services every year, and I know a lot of the kids complained, but I really liked them. I always loved hearing the stories of the wars, seeing the slide shows, and imagining what it would have been like to have been there. If I could have chosen any other time this century to live, it would have been during WWII. It fascinates me, and I find it sad that there are fewer and fewer people alive who remember it.
I hadn't gone to a Remembrance Day service in a few years--not since I graduated, really--but today I went to the official city service at the Jubilee with my family. I'm such a patriotic, emotional sap. In a good way, of course--my eyes teared up during O Canada, and they didn't stop until well after the service was finished.
I love the fact that Remembrance Day still acknowledges God. The songs sung and the hymns played were just that: hymns. Songs that remind us of the foundations that Canada was built on--"That He would have dominion from sea to sea"--and the principles that the soldiers fought for. My dad commented that in a country where God is denied and religion is mocked more and more every day, there comes a time when God is undeniable and has to be honored. It would be a disservice to this country and to the people who fought for it to leave God out of the ceremonies and the remembrances.
I want to know. I want to hear the stories, remember the heroes, follow in their footsteps in a generation where courage is a dying attribute. I want to experience through their eyes, understand the truths that they understood, know why I can't take this country for granted, and why we as a country can't take God for granted. I want to know how their faith stood up in the battlefields and how these champions not only of war but of faith trusted God through the darkest times.
I was so glad to see many children sitting in the balcony with me at the Jube. I was glad that parents are still bringing kids too young to go to school yet to see this. It's too much an important piece of our history to allow it to fall by the wayside without the stories. We need to learn from the people who have the years of experience behind them. Why reinvent the wheel? Why try to pretend that we've made every discovery that we've arrived at thus far?
O God our help in ages past
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home
Under the shadow of Thy Throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.
During the laying of the wreaths during the ceremony, the first song that the band played was "Holy, Holy, Holy." How much more appropriate? Remembrance Day is about the people, yes. It's about the people who gave their lives, or years of their lives, for their country and for what they believed in. More than that, though, whether people acknowledge it or not, it's about the God whose name this country was built on. "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." Regardless of who wins which war, the entire earth belongs to God, and we have no authority except that which he's given us. How can we acknowledge our own authority and victory without acknowledging his?
Holy, holy, holy!
Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning
our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, holy, holy,
merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons,
bless�d Trinity!
Holy, holy, holy!
though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man
Thy glory may not see;
Only Thou art holy;
there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power,
in love, and purity.
Holy, holy, holy!
Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy Name,
in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy;
merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons,
bless�d Trinity!
One year ago today: I've always loved the stories of war; the stories of the fighting and the Resistance... the heroes who were really just ordinary people who knew when to stand up and fight for what they believed in. I still wear a poppy, but I miss those services. I miss going to the Kirby Center, where the service was for the seniors and the only reason we went was because dad played the trumpet there. I miss hearing their stories, talking to them, finding out what they remember, where they're coming from.
infinite || abyss
posted at 2:30 p.m.
