TOPIC:“Let's Take Time to Pause”
by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap
“And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever” (Exodus 12:14).
Memorial Day is a holiday observed in these United States on the last Monday in May. After the Civil War families in the South began decorating the graves of soldiers who died in battle in the defense of their country. It was then called “Decoration Day.” But since World War I Memorial Day has commemorated the dead of all wars.
Tributes are made and flowers are put on the graves of American servicemen in foreign countries. Water services are held for those who died at sea, and ceremonies will be held at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery in Virginia to commemorate those who died in the defense of our country. But unofficially, Memorial Day services as a day for decorating the graves of all those dead who are remembered by loved ones and friends. In this very cemetery lies buried not only our sons and daughters who fought in past wars, but our loved ones who have gone on before us.
Here in our text we find Moses telling the Israelites that the festival of Passover was to be an annual holiday commemorating their deliverance from Egypt. They were to pause and remember what God had done for them. Like Israel of old, on this Memorial Day Sunday let us pause to think of what it means to each one of us.
Consider, first of all, this Memorial Day demands us to have a SACRED REMEMBRANCE. In our text we find these words: “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial.” The word “memorial” denotes keeping alive the memory of someone or something.
Like the time when Mary anointed Jesus for burial. Jesus said this of her action: “Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this . . .