This week we salute our United States military veterans. It seems fitting that our Thanksgiving season should start with being thankful for our vets. These brave men and women serve and served our great nation so that we can be free to celebrate all the goodness God has provided.
We give thanks for those who promised and prepared to defend not just our liberty but our lives as well. In a real sense, they were willing to lay down their lives to keep ours safe. This means bravery, but it also sounds a lot like love.
Love is willing to sacrifice what I have to meet someone else’s need. The soldier is willing to sacrifice his or her most valuable commodity: their own life. In the Bible book of John, Jesus declares, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
The members of our U. S. armed forces demonstrate this every day and night as they lay their lives on the line for us. There is no greater love. In this way, our veterans point us to Jesus Christ. He was captured so others could go free. He died that others might live. He was the ultimate Hero who gave His life to save His friends.
But Christ’s love is even greater still. The Bible says, “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” (Romans 5:7-8). Jesus died not just for his friends, but “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (v. 10).
So, thank our veterans for their brave service. And praise the Lord for His ultimate sacrifice. What love!
Contact Jeff with comments or questions: jeffgwilt@gmail.com
