Memorial Day and the Bixby Letter

Today, we take a moment to pause and remember those in the American military who never made it home.

How does one find the words to thank someone and their family for paying the ultimate price in the name of freedom? Sons, daughters. Fathers, mothers. Husbands, wives. Gone to soon. An empty seat forever at the table. Words just don’t seem to be enough. But we must pause, and endeavor to remember their sacrifice.

Each American flag speaks of them and whispers a reminder, a recollection, a reason for preserving this Constitutional democracy.

The color red(of the American flag) represents valor and courage. It symbolizes the sacrifice and bravery of those who have fought to defend the nation’s freedoms and ideals. Red also signifies the resilience and determination of the American people in times of adversity. ~ flagladyusa

Thank you to those still living who lost a loved one in defense of liberty. And thank you to the men and women who gave up their lives in order to provide us this moment in time to enjoy the blessings of liberty.

Abraham Lincoln is credited with the following excerpt from the Bixby Letter….

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. ~ Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Mrs Bixby (1864)

Licensed thumbnail photo of the American flag by LaMusique