Thought for the Day - Monday 9 November

Thought for the day 9/11/20 Psalm 103 A psalm of David. 1 Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. 2 Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me. 3 He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. 4 He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. 5 He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s! 6 The LORD gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly. If you joined us on our Zoom Remembrance Day service yesterday, I hope you enjoyed it. I thought it was a most fitting way and a most moving way to mark the act of remembrance in this ‘online environment’ that we find ourselves having to get used to. It made me think about the traditional way we have marked this occasion in the past. Following the short but poignant service at our war memorial, it was always great to have the children from the Sunday School with us for the full service and it was especially great to have the uniformed boys and girls with their officers parading to the Church carrying their colours. It was great to see the colour parties of each organisation lined up at the front of the Church and lowering their colour where necessary while the respectful silence was being observed by all in attendance. It was great to see the minister taking the colours from the colour party and placing them around the pulpit where they would remain for the duration of that service of worship. Most of us who were present on yesterday’s Zoom service will have had friends or parents or grand-parents who have served with the armed forces or been directly affected by the recent and not so recent conflicts and will fully appreciate the importance of this annual act of remembrance. It is apparent that less and less young folk are in the habit of attending formal services of worship whether in a Church Sanctuary or in our Zoom offering and due to Covid, we were unable to hold the traditional service of remembrance in our Church building that the organisations would attend. It made me wonder if the folks in all age groups not attending any of the remembrance events organised by Churches or watching those broadcast on television are actually engaged in any form of remembrance of the sacrifices made by members of our armed forces or any of the support organisations. If the answer to this is ‘no’, it would be a real shame even a disgrace. This is an occasion that should never be allowed to come to an end and each and every one of us should do whatever we can to ensure this never happens. Our scripture reading today gives the assurance that by looking to the Lord, all that have suffered persecution and injustice in this life will be redeemed from death in the next. Prayer Heavenly Father, we are thankful that you look out for us in this life and recognise the extreme suffering and sacrifice made by individuals in service to their country. Be with those who only have memories left and with those whose suffering will remain with them all their days. Help us to be patient and charitable to them in any way we can. Amen