Greetings and best wishes on this day after Memorial Day from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church in Vinita, Oklahoma.
Memorial Day began in the United States in the late 1860's, after the American Civil War, when a women's Sunday School Class in a small southern town adopted a spring project. The women decided to decorate the graves of their sons, husbands and sweethearts with flowers out of their gardens.
Upon arriving at the cemetery, they expanded their plan. The graves of all soldiers were decorated, including the graves of soldiers from the North.
It was one small step toward reconciliation!
When their project was reported in newspapers, the Sunday School Class began to get letters from people in the North, thanking them for putting flowers on the graves of their loved ones, buried so far away from home.
Soon the practice spread, and for decades May 30th was called Decoration Day, now it is called Memorial Day - a day the nation stops to give thanks for the sacrifice made in all the wars for the preservation of liberty and freedom.
Let us never forget the cost paid for our freedom, and let us resolve never to abuse that freedom or soil it.
Let us remember ... and may God's grace and mercy remain with you, and your loved ones, always.
Richard
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