Secret Heroes and Memorial Day

Here I sit, Memorial Day morning, in my safe house, on my safe street, in my safe valley. It is so easy to forget that every day, someone is risking, someone is wounded, someone is dying, for that comfortable safety I feel right now. When someone pokes fun at a young woman in uniform in the airport, leaving family and friends behind, does that make her risk less? When a fellow customer impatiently pushes past a limping middle-aged veteran, does that make his wound any less permanent? When a government leader callously minimizes a passed veterans service with careless public rhetoric, does that make his death any less of a sacrifice?

At this very minute, in every hospital in America, and at Ukiah Valley Medical Center, skilled laboratorians practice their trade using experience and technology to support you and your loved ones today. Helping to diagnose infections, strokes, heart attacks. Providing safe blood for trauma victims. Giving answers to tough questions every hour of every day. If you don’t know of their presence, does that make their duties less critical? If you don’t understand what they do, does that make their knowledge less important? If you don’t know why they serve, does that make their service more trivial?

At this second, my Jesus stands in heaven, wrist-ripping scars still evident, the single living veteran who gave His life in a war on crime, a war against evil, a war to bring down the sin walls of separation between us and the Father. If you don’t believe in Him this morning, does that make His sacrifice less valuable? If you don’t acknowledge His role in your life and future, does that make His love for you any less intense? If you refuse to admit that there is such a Person, does that mean that He didn’t die just for you?

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  -John 15:13 NIV.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  -Romans 5:8 NIV.

On this Memorial Day,

To members of our Armed Services here and abroad, even if we don’t acknowledge you, to laboratorians serving you right now, even if we don’t know of you, to Jesus, dying for me and for you, even if you don’t believe in Him, I say thank you, thank you, and Thank You!