Like mother and father should

She has raised me child wild and creative

She allowed me to imagine and speak

She gave me wings and dreams

The cost was rich, red, and river like

She is young and lovely still

She has much to learn; still naive

History tells of her blind eyes and sword drawn

She lifts her torch and stretches wide open arms

She is stiff necked and independent like the children

Who wandered for forty years and never bought new shoes

Her breasts rise in Colorado and the Appalachia

Her heart is scattered fifty places to the corners of the content

Perhaps she boasts too loudly

As the old hymn prays, I pray, too, today

May He confirm her soul in self control

And mend her every flaw

I pray for love and open ears

I pray for courage to stand the tests of time

I pray for guides for her and hers

Who will engender those benedictions of mine.

May she be blessed today, her Independence Day

With a rebirth of desire to also celebrate and be interdependent

May she celebrate loudly her freedoms

May those freedoms celebrated,

May they give her the opportunity to take

Her place among her siblings

Who share this one green blue sphere we all call home.

I love and lift my country to Your heart

I thank you for the blood spilt from shore to shore

And around this world on her behalf for me

Thank you for my country, my life, and liberties!

          Today is Memorial Day. We remember those who have sacrificed and lost so much so that we can live with the freedoms we are given. It’s a very poignant and special remembering. Freedom is costly.

          My children were talking with me earlier about “Memorial” and what that word means. I explained that it is a symbol to remember something or someone. They asked me who I “remember” today. I said that I am reminded of my mother’s father. He served in Korean. I told them he was one of many remembered today.

          We talked about other memorials. Like Joshua and Israelites memorials.

1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
8 So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. 9 Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been [a] in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day. – Joshua 4

The memorial stones here commemorated something great God had done for his people.

           Mat and Abbey asked me about my personal memorial stones. Here’s my list if not all my reasons- after all some memorial stones are private I think.

-A stone from my father’s grave
-A round light green box with a loves bird, Chinese fan, and cherry blossoms from my professor with a letter inside
-A letter from Madeleine L’Engle and her grand-daughters
-A letter from Fred Roger’s wife Joanne
-A letter from Esther Burroughs
-A bookmark that reads “It’s Good to Let Go.”
-A postcard of a stained glass color burst window
-Several name tags pressed into my Bible with dates on them and commitments written on some
-An oil lamp from Israel
-A wedding cake topper
-A picture in black and white drawn of a tree by a stream of water and a desert (Jeremiah 17:6-8 is on it)
-A Willow Tree Angel with blonde hair and wings
-Various Willow Tree family carvings
-Lady Bugs
-Roses
-Silver
-Various pictures
-Pachelbel’s Cannon in D
-Journals
-Tons of quotes scattered all around the house
-Kids art on walls and fridge
-A stone from the place Diallo proposed
-A small wooden box with a purple flower on the outside and a dried rose on the inside
-A picture of St. Exupery’s little prince and the fox and quotes
-And my favorite – a very well worn pair of blue jogging pants that have “West Orange Stark” on the leg

           Memorial stones are our north stars as we wander. They remind us who we are, who we love, and what has been done on our behalf. They remind us of what is worth fighting for. They remind us of what we prize and value. They remind us of times of clarity and purpose. Some are reminders of losses. Some are reminders of fantastic moments of awakenings. Today we remember.

Psalm 77-
10 Then I thought, “To this I will appeal:
the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
11 I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
12 I will meditate on all your works
and consider all your mighty deeds.
13 Your ways, O God, are holy.
What god is so great as our God?
14 You are the God who performs miracles;
you display your power among the peoples.
15 With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
Selah