Saving Private Ryan!

June 6, 1944
Who Was Really Saved on the Beaches 
of Normandy?  

Captain Miller: James Francis Ryan of Iowa?
Private Ryan: Yes, sir. Paton, Iowa, that's correct. What is this about?
Captain Miller: Your brothers were killed in combat.
Private Ryan: Which - Which ones?
Captain Miller: All of them.
[Being told he can go home]
Private Ryan: Hell, these guys deserve to go home as much as I do. They've fought just as hard.
Captain Miller: Is that what I'm supposed to tell your mother when she gets another folded American flag?
Private Ryan: You can tell her that when you found me, I was with the only brothers I had left. And that there was no way I was deserting them. I think she'd understand that.


 I sat in nearly the first row to see Private Ryan saved, and it was so realistic, I ducked for cover as bullets flew over my head. The voices raised from the beaches were painful to hear.  Behind this movie was the classic, The Longest Day, with its star studded cast.  Tom Hanks and Matt Damon were enough to carry off the modern remake with its special individualized focus of one soldier out of  the 160,000 troops landing along 50 miles of beach from 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft? That's the contribution of the Ryan movie--to give you that personalized glimpse.  Longest Day did it well by zooming in on a few soldiers and key people, as if to expose the critical nerves in the one armed body set to sweep Europe. 


 Standing behind the entire invasion was one man alone--Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.  He alone made that terrible and most difficult order of men to their deaths and nations to liberty.  The point is probably the same--the courage to make the call upon which all of our lives now stand in liberty. The weather had been awful.  How do we now use our freedom?  Every day in many ways we make the call for how we use the time bestowed upon us by those brave soldiers.  Will we at least stop this day and pray with thanksgiving for the gift of their lives and the freedom to live ours?

A Prayer of Sacred Remembrance and Thanksgiving

Gracious God, teach us to number and measure our days by your grace.  Remind us of the sacrifices paid on the beaches of Normandy for all people on this very day in our lives. Send your Spirit upon us and make us worthy to live in freedom, never to rest until all people enjoy its liberty, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen+