Why remembering mAtTers.

Christine DiGiacomo
12 minutes ago
5 min read

Memorial Day, 2026.

Check out this great short clip: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=FhWV2S8rM88&list=RDFhWV2S8rM88&start_radio=1

podcast: https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/350e83b3/why-remembering-matters-memorial-day-2026

'Have plans this weekend? I want to attend the Remembrance Service in Raleigh again. Memorial Day or 'Decoration Day' as my mama used to call it, is a day to remember and honor the thousands of military men and women who died while serving our country. The service of North Carolinians goes all the way back to the American Revolution; the Tar Heels also played a key role in the Civil War.

It seems the Civil War was the catalyst for setting a day aside to honor the fallen, as communities came together to decorate the graves of those who died during service--some 620,000 Americans!1 While there were set-aside days since 1868, a federal holiday was not established until 1971.

We remember because the freedom we enjoy was not free at all.

Yesterday, I reached out to a few friends who served in our military, asking why they thought it important to recognize Memorial Day. Consider this: "In 2007, I spent Memorial Day in Fallujah. Although I was on my fifth tour in Iraq, it was the first deployment when I buried friends. I attended more than three dozen memorial services that deployment. I remember the names and faces of the dead. Memorial Day was no longer an abstraction.2 And then there were those who came home severely wounded; oh, they resumed life, but life was forever different. Two friends recalled those who came back, but could not get over the nightmares they had seen and experienced, and ultimately, took their own lives. One young veteran commented..."the goal isn't and never has been to forget my fallen brothers in arms, but to be at peace with the simplicity behind their deaths. We all knew the risk associated with the job and we all said, "yes, I will commit to it anyway." His advice: be grateful you walked among men of such principle and that they called you their friend and brother. Honor them in the silence of your heart on a day that is marked for their remembrance, not your grief."

Harry Truman said,

Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country

can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude.

America will never forget their sacrifices."3

But Truman said that in 1945, and it feels to me like a lot of us have forgotten.

O, we must keep that truth alive! Ours is a courageous past ~ a benevolent legacy of a country that has come to the aid of more repressed countries and disadvantaged people groups than any other in the history of the world.

^{We set aside Memorial Day as a day to honor those who gave their all.}

Tragically, somewhere along the line, in the last few decades, it seems there is less appreciation for the privileges and freedoms we enjoy in America,

and accordingly less gratitude toward those who serve or gave their lives.

Let's turn it around!

Maybe the importance of honoring those who give their lives keeping America free has loomed large recently because of my acquaintance with Ayaan Hirsi Ali - an immigrant who dearly loves this country. Her story is incredible - and I would say unbelievable - if it were not true! Born into a Muslim family in war-torn Somalia, her body mutilated because she is a female, she moves from country to country including Saudi Arabia - eventually seeking asylum in Holland.4

Ayaan quickly learns Dutch and earns her M.A. in political science. Working as a translator for Somali immigrants, she sees first hand the inconsistencies between liberal, Western society and tribal, Muslim cultures. After 9/11, she renounces her Muslim faith and becomes an atheist.

Stick with me here--Ayaan then collaborates on a movie called "Submission"5 ; her collaborator, Theo van Gogh, is murdered on an Amsterdam street, a note stabbed into his body warning that Ayaan would be next.

In spite of death threats, she will not been silenced. In 2006, she comes to America, and wonder of wonders, Ayaan comes to know Jesus as Savior in 2023.6,7. [You know, sometimes we do not know or appreciate what we have until we hear from someone who has come from such a very different cultural experience than our own]. Knowing her story not only makes me a more grateful American but a more confident Christian! Whatever device or whatever mechanism you have to read or listen to her story - including the links below--do it.

If you have been reading Morning Briefings very long, you know by now that I am a bit sentimental, but I vividly remember the first time I saw the Statue of Liberty from a ferry in New York Harbor. Tears ran down my face as I thought of how many people had streamed into America in search of freedom.

This plaque at the lovely lady's feet captures it well:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!⁸

^{To this day, people want to come to America because we are free.}

We would not be free without those who gave their lives to defeat tyranny.

And the freedom we enjoy in Jesus Christ was not free either.

By choice, in order that we might have relationship with him and enjoy him forever,

Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price. No,

the freedom we enjoy in Christ wasn’t free either

- it cost Jesus everything.

Thank God for freedom because no matter where you are in this great wide world, if you are in Jesus Christ, you are free. As Paul so eloquently but succinctly wrote, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”⁹

With gratitude in my heart,

Watch these Marines from Camp Pendleton in San Clemente, California: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ9AVh4Dzf4

Never forget their sacrifice.

Christine