It’s Memorial Day whose purpose was succinctly summarized by our former pastor John Ed Mathison last week:

We can casually sit back and enjoy backyard barbecues, boat rides, and beach bashes, but the meaning of Memorial Day is that almost 1.5 million men and women have died so that you and I might enjoy our freedoms. We look to Thanksgiving as a day when we pause to give thanks for the things that we have. Memorial Day is a day when we pause to give thanks to the people who fought and died for the things we have. – Dr. John Ed Mathison, May 25, 2022

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15.13, ESV)

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5.6 – 8, ESV)