Sacrificial Love

Nº 423

You can always give without loving, but you can never love without giving. - Amy Carmichael

A cemetery overlooking the beaches of Normandy, France, holds the remains of over 8,000 young American soldiers and sailors who gave their lives in 1944 during the D-Day landing and subsequent fighting.

Buried there is Teddy Roosevelt Jr., the oldest son of former president Teddy Roosevelt. A general at 56, he was the oldest and highest ranked warrior to go ashore in the first wave. Due to injuries sustained in World War 1, he used a cane.

His name, age, rank, and physical limitations were all reasons to avoid the battle. But he insisted on joining the fight. He died of a heart attack about a month after the initial landing. His courage and leadership earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Paul reminds us that Jesus had every reason to avoid coming to Earth’s shore. However, He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. . . . he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)

Excelsior,

Dan Bolin

Author & President