Images of Life
At no other time in history have any people had so many vivid Images impressed upon their memory. This week has been no exception: a beautiful baby girl, now dead and her own mother on trial for her murder. A heartbroken father, desperately looking for his son in the middle of the ravages of a killer tornado. On the television screen the baby is shown smiling, enjoying her now long past two year old birthday party; the father, in the very real present tragedy of this week’s violent storms, has an unforgettable look of anguish on his face as he looks for his son.
But not all of the images are heartbreaking. Some are uplifting. There are rescue workers risking their lives, and sometimes giving them up to save another’s life. Dogs, faithfully trained, search through hopeless piles of debris to find the living - and the dead. Some actions illustrate the best of this earth.
In one way or another we have all cost another the ultimate price, the giving of a life. We may not have been rescued from an earthquake in Japan or a tornado in Joplin, but without our troops we might well be speaking German instead of English. Or before that, at least California where I live, could have been given to Mexico. Just check history for that WWI fact that I learned from my granddaughter’s discovery of the Zimmerman telegram! Because some were willing to die many of us live. Let’s try to be worth the sacrifice!
The Bible says: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Whether it has been a fireman rushing into the fiery twin towers on 9/11 or the rescue of a overly ambitious mountain climber on Mt.Hood, we have all been inspired by the courage of that principle. Images help us put principles into shoe leather. We have watched the brave faces of the heroes of war as their faces appear on the evening news so that for at least that moment they are not forgotten. Our brains remember selectively for each of us. But for each we find that some face, some action of heroism, is etched forever in our memory.
Once a year we have an official day for remembering the troops, past and present. We especially remember the fallen heroes. Wreaths are laid, and tributes are expressed on the television screens. But perhaps most of all we forget and have our three day weekend getaway, UNLESS one image, one memory, or one loved one keeps us remembering. For every American there are the never-to-be-forgotten images of 9/11. Who can forget the billows of black smoke engulfing crowds of terrified victims as they ran for safety? Who can erase the images of desperate human beings falling from the windows of the twin towers? It is as we remember these images that we can be truly grateful for our brave men and women who give their lives that we might never have another 9/11. And then we must make sure each day we live justifies such sacrifice.
The greatest sacrifice ever made was the example for all other sacrifices. Jesus Christ, God incarnate, taught us the ultimate meaning of giving one’s life for one’s friends, and in His case one’s enemies. The summary of that sacrifice is best expressed in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Nothing but love can justify that sacrifice, but we can embrace it in faith and worship Him in gratitude.
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For more of Elizabeth Skoglund’s writing, please visit her Books page or read her online material available on the eBooks and eArticles pages.