Amazing Grace in Wartime

Emotions run deep in the minds, hearts and souls throughout America as we approach Veterans Day. Let's begin this weekend reflecting on the events that led to the establishment of this day's celebration.

The Great War: WWI

With war in Europe, all eyes and ears remained keenly aware of its presence and acutely alert to its impact on the United States. Courage and allegiance to America remained stalwart in the face of imminent danger; battles were won and lost on foreign soil.

Landscapes collapsed under the brutality of war

Relinquishing timeless relics unto life’s plight

Variegated shades of crimson covered the hillsides

Capturing lifelessness within dawn’s early light

The encumbrance of blight, life in death

Shrouded fields once lush from flowing streams

Spoils and scars saddled the countryside

While endless flames blazed even in dreams

Night became bright as day

As flashes riveted across a star-shelled sky

Blood curdling sights and sounds

Echoed within each and every battle cry

One water bottle for forty men

Such anguish one could not ignore

The ghastly stench of death and dying

One could only gravely abhor

Anticipation of life’s last breath

Made even the brightest day pale

Yet in the midst of such bleak darkness

Hopes of peace nonetheless prevailed

Singing and whistling heard from the trenches

Authenticated life still truly existed

Despite the cold, hunger and suffering

Never once was the question why I enlisted

“A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country

is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.”

—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)

©2012 Awakenings
Sharla Lee Shults