EVERY
MAN STOOD IN HIS PLACE
Sixty
years ago today on June 6, 1944, on the shores of Omaha Beach in
Normandy, France, thirty five thousand soldiers stepped into history.
Today, that invasion is known as D-Day. It marked a major turning
point in the war, but not without significant loss of life.
Those
who were there reported rows of tanks stretching ten miles long. One
Canadian who was there, later spoke of the five thousand ships that
stretched out along the coast of Normandy, saying that "It
looked as if you could walk across the channel and not get your feet
wet." Overhead, ten thousand planes dropped almost six million
tons of bombs behind enemy lines. Following the bombing, the skies
were filled with what looked like confetti as twenty thousand men
parachuted to the ground. One and a half million soldiers
participated in the carrying out of this infamous assault.
In
the early hours of that fateful morning, the assault boats floundered
in rough waters, dropping their ramps hundreds of yards off shore,
forcing heavily laden infantry men to wade in pounding surf up to
their armpits. German machine-guns opened fire on them from atop the
cliffs overlooking the beach. Many soldiers were cut down before
clearing their landing crafts. In spite of great odds, two hundred
twenty five soldiers scaled the one hundred foot sheer cliffs of
Pointe du Hoc. Every man was a hero.
On
that morning, many young men paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.
Today, nine thousand seventy nine marble crosses mark the graves of
those brave men. One thousand five hundred fifty seven names of
missing men are engraved on a memorial near by. Three hundred
seven graves mark the burial places of men whose names only God
knows. Over fourteen thousand injured men were sent home, most of
whom died.
As
third and fourth generations grow up as benefactors of that and
subsequent wars, many know little of that battle in a far-away land
or of the terrible price that was paid in young lives. The dying men
on that beach seem remote, the sound of crackling gun fire is
silenced, and the lonesomeness that engulfed those who died far away
from home and families is uncomprehended.
Were
the sacrifices of that day offered in vain? Not hardly. While their
memory may fade into the shadows of time as generations pass on, what
they and many other men and women contributed do not go unrealized by
subsequent generations that enjoy the blessings of freedom and life
as we know it. In what has been called "the greatest
generation," we find a mindset, a sense of commitment, and a
self-discipline that has not been known since. Young men and women
who experienced separation, fear and scenes of war that yet remain
etched in their minds, are now aged - but their valor yet remains
true to the end. We are forever indebted to their faithful calling.
There
is a spiritual parallel to their heroism and the results of their
sacrifice. Before Israel was to enter into the promised land, Moses
spoke to the people and reminded them of the magnitude of that which
they were about to receive as a gift from the Lord. But hear his
warning to them as he said, "And it shall be, when the Lord your
God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities
which
you did not build,
houses full of all good things, which
you did not fill,
hewn-out wells which
you did not dig,
vineyards and olive trees
which you did not plant
- when you have eaten and are full - then
beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, from the house of bondage."
(Deut. 6:10-12)
We
too enjoy the fruits of those who have gone before us into spiritual
battle. We enjoy the fellowship of a spiritual family that we did
not bring forth. We drink of the wellspring of the preached word
that we did not have to dig. We have eaten of the fruit of spiritual
plenty which we did not plant. But we too also have to beware that
we not forget, and in our spiritual wealth take for granted what we
enjoy at the hand of those who have born the heat of the day.
Consider the price some of our forefathers paid. "They were
stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the
sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being
destitute, afflicted, tormented - of whom the world was not worthy.
They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the
earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through
faith, did not receive the promise, God
having provided something better for us, that they should not be made
perfect apart from us."
(Heb. 11:37-40)
Each
one of us who wear the name Christian is indebted to the grace of God
and to someone who preceded us into the faith. Many of us were
taught by godly parents. Some were led to Christ by a friend or
perhaps someone who had previously been unknown to us. We are but
another generation in the passing on of the baton of faith. All of
us have come to this point in our spiritual pilgrimage with others
who have stood along side of us and encouraged us when we were weak
and struggling, who urged us to go on when we thought we could go no
farther, who held up our weary arms in battle, who comforted us when
we were in despair. We dare not fail to commit ourselves to the same
principles of love, compassion, and courage. Let it not be said that
we failed to pass on to the next generation the things that we
learned and enjoyed at the hand of our progenitors.
Our
conflict is one of "...principalities and powers in the heavenly
places" (Eph. 6:12) and the battlefield is strewn with the dead
and dying bodies of those who failed to resist the power of Satan's
army. Do not be dismayed, but rather, "Watch, stand fast in the
faith, be brave (like men, kjv),
be strong." (1 Cor. 16:13)
As
Gideon's army of thirty two thousand was reduced by God to only three
hundred men, their enemies "...were lying in the valley as
numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the
sand by the seashore in multitude." (Jud. 7:12) That
comparatively small band of men surrounded the enemy's camp and blew
their trumpets. "And every man stood in his place all around
the camp." (vs. 21) As those before us, now it is our turn to
stand in place. - Gary V. Womack - June 2004