Liberty - Lee Shelnutt
The second visit was as emotional as the first. I had been traveling alone that first time. This time my wife and daughter were with me. I had wanted them to have this experience. I knew it would be particularly poignant for my wife Joni. Her grandfather had been there too.
He had been out on those waters in a Higgins boat I believe. He had crossed that beach below us. He had climbed the bluff and had been in this very area. Later, he would earn a bronze star for pulling a wounded comrade to safety in St-Lo. “Yeah, I was the only one dumb enough to do it I suppose.” “Dumb” is not the word.
I was glad Joni and Neidin were with me. Yet, we wanted to take in the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial near Omaha Beach each on our own. We slowly walked in different directions among the crowds of visitors and the stark white crosses. At one point, I needed to just sit on a bench and think, cry, and pray.
“Lord, thank you for the thousands of young men who stormed these beaches on the morning of June 6, 1944. Thank you for the self-sacrifice of those who didn’t make it out of those Higgins boats alive, for those who didn’t make it across the beach, or up this bluff, or didn’t survive to see the fall of the evil Nazi regime, and thank you for those who did. If they hadn’t sacrificed themselves in
the cause of freedom that day, if the allies had not been successful, this world would be a very different place.”
As I prayed words to that effect, I could hear the visitors speaking in French and a few in German.
My thoughts, prayer, and tears continued,
“Lord, what enabled such men young men, regular men, to do what they did at such great cost? What enabled Joni’s grandfather, William?”
Certainly, there was a, “well, the sooner we defeat Hitler, the sooner we can get back home” in the answer somewhere. That was one of the many things the movie, Saving Private Ryan captured well. But also, at least in part and for many, the answer I think must have included, “so that others might be liberated from the evils of Nazi Germany.”
“Lord, thank you for their sacrifices so that the French and others could be liberated and so that their children and grandchildren can walk through this cemetery today.”
Such sacrifices for real freedom! And then it struck me as I watched the visitors pass by.
“But Oh LORD, there is a deeper, fuller, eternal freedom needed, that all these people here walking through this cemetery and throughout the world need. A freedom from the bondage to sin, a freedom from the miseries of sin. A freedom from the power of sin and from the evil one. A freedom from the penalty of sin, from the holy wrath of God, from an eternity in hell. A freedom ultimately from the very presence of sin and evil....
...am I willing to sacrifice anything to tell them that freedom is found in Jesus? ...anything?
...(more tears), Lord, melt this cold heart. Fill it with love and courage. Open my heart and my tongue.”
How about you?