respect for a Day

 "There's no greater sacrifice
Than to lay down your life for your friends,"
He told His disciples this
With hopes that they'd understand.

The Sabbath God gave knowing
That a day we would need to reflect
To take a break from working
And give to Him our respect.

It's not the break which does it;
He said, "Our God still works to this day."
The act of thinking on it
Is what keeps the holiday.

Remembrance is a good thing
And regarding the fallen is good.
Better yet still is keeping
Alive the reason they stood.

Life for a life is payment,
So we think that we owe something back.
But Law finds no fulfillment
When charity's what we lack.

In First-John three-seventeen,
There we see how these things are in line.
And the gospel, then, we glean
In that chapter four, verse nine.

"Show me your faith without deeds"--
James--"Belief without action is dead."
If Jesus died for our needs,
We should, then, mind what He said.

"The Good Shepherd lays down for
The sheep, His life." And we all, like sheep,
Have gone our own way. The door
To the pen, heaven, is He.

The Way, the Truth and the Life,
The Bread, Vine, Resurrection and Light,
Emmanuel bid all strife
And Death removed in His sight.

The sacrifices of men,
All the losses of lives uncontrolled,
Mean little compared to when
The death of Him was foretold.

"My body given for ye..."
"Just as the snake, Moses lifted high..."
"Whoever believes in Me
Will live, even though he die."

Remember the heroes lost,
That the price that they paid was so dear.
Remember much more sin's cost,
And with it we can draw near.