I wish everyone could visit the memorial there.
You see the footage of the actual bombing before going over to the actual site by transport.
The site still oozes oil.
You stand on glass to look down.
Almost everyone is silent. Just like they were at the end of “American Sniper” and “We Were Soldiers.”
Most of those men were just red-blooded Americans, a lot around 20 years old, with the wind and the future in their face.
Scanning the Arizona: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0TpsfxGDdo
Footage of the attack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NaaN0wQtbg
My folks knew someone who is there still.
And yet... and yet... everyone has eternity in their future.
The question for us to ask, is what KIND of eternity. Our chosen attitude in this mortal coil is a factor in shaping that. There is a God. There is a devil. God is stronger, but God won’t force us to choose either. Love would cease to be love if He did.
Why did this man or that man die at age 20. When others make it close to a century if not beyond.
If we see the big picture, it’s like asking why did this shadow suddenly go away shortly after it appeared, but why did that shadow last almost all day? It doesn’t have to do with the merit of the shadows, as though the longer lasting shadow merited more. It is the life in our years, rather than the years in our life, that ends up mattering in the end.
“They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Japan understood that. They were wiped out because of what they COULD do. They were not of a vain purpose when we consider that there is a God on the Throne of heaven.
One of the most incredible experiences I’ve had. You cannot help but be humbled and silent the entire time you’re at the memorial.
I had no family involved, but I wept. It’s impossible to be unaffected by the magnitude of the sacrifice.