Frankly Speaking
Tomorrow is Memorial Day, a day set aside to remember those who died while in military service, particularly those who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained in battle. In other words, we memorialize the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. We should all spend time remembering those who lost their lives and could not come home and experience the luxury and freedom that we enjoy today. The wearing of a single red poppy became a Memorial Day tradition after the Great War. In the war-torn battlefields of Europe, the red poppy was one of the first plants to reappear. Its seeds scattered in the wind and sat dormant in the ground, only germinating when the ground was disturbed—as it was by the brutal fighting of World War 1. Although the red poppies remind us of loss of life, they also symbolize new life and assure us that the sacrifices were not in vain.
Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
“We Shall Keep the Faith” by Moina Michael, November 1918
Pastor Frank Dodson
Tomorrow is Memorial Day, a day set aside to remember those who died while in military service, particularly those who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained in battle. In other words, we memorialize the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. We should all spend time remembering those who lost their lives and could not come home and experience the luxury and freedom that we enjoy today. The wearing of a single red poppy became a Memorial Day tradition after the Great War. In the war-torn battlefields of Europe, the red poppy was one of the first plants to reappear. Its seeds scattered in the wind and sat dormant in the ground, only germinating when the ground was disturbed—as it was by the brutal fighting of World War 1. Although the red poppies remind us of loss of life, they also symbolize new life and assure us that the sacrifices were not in vain.
Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
“We Shall Keep the Faith” by Moina Michael, November 1918
Pastor Frank Dodson
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