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All Gave Some...

 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)

 

Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? (James 2:22)

 

I’ve been waiting to write this post all week.  For once, I was paying attention to the holiday at the end of the week. Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day, and in the past few  years, I’ve seen quite a few memes like this one:



Sometimes, it feels a little as if veterans are second rate – failures who didn’t give all, unlike those who are honored on Memorial Day. After all, veterans are still alive. They gave some, and should be honored for that, but they didn’t give “all.” But Scripture has a problem with that. According to James and the author of Hebrews (and possibly others), Abraham sacrificed Isaac. But Isaac grew up, married, had children, and died at an advanced age.

If I give you all the money I have, and you gave back ten dollars, could you accurately say that I didn’t give all the money I have? Does your generosity reduce mine? Of course, it’s entirely possible that I withheld some of my money, claiming (like Annais and Sephora) that I had given it all. It’s equally possible that some soldiers held back and did not truly do their duty. But I think it unwise to make a distinction merely because the veterans we honor today aren’t dead. I’m going to say that most give as much of their all as they could. It isn’t to their discredit that the “all” needed was not the “all” that we seem to think required.

In this sense, our veterans have something to teach us. Too often, we decide that someone is undeserving, or less deserving than another person because that person hasn’t suffered as much as the other, or that someone can’t possibly understand how another person feels until or unless that person has experienced the exact same thing in every minute detail. God doesn’t seem to see things in such a negative, judgmental light. If you are truly willing to sacrifice your son at God’s command, it’s no shame to you if God then tells you not to. You’ve still made the sacrifice in your heart.

 

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