Dear Children,
Last week I received a beautiful book in the mail: KOREA
REBORN-A GRATEFUL NATION HONORS WAR VETERANS FOR 60 YEARS OF GROWTH.
The Korean War Veterans Association stated:
“This book is as a
gift from the people of Korea to Korean War Veterans and their families in
commemoration of their service and sacrifice. The Korean War was one of the
bloodiest wars in American history. The total American casualties were 36,516
killed, 103,516 wounded and 8,177 missing in action. Over 5 million Americans would
serve in the war that lasted 37 months.”
This made me think of North Korea and the price paid to free the
people of South Korea from that bloody dictatorship so I sat down and wrote the
following:
WAS IT
WORTH IT?
It was called “The Korean Conflict” and “The Forgotten War,” but
it was really the "Forgotten Victory." The mothers and fathers, wives
and children, and relatives and friends of the more than 36,000 young men who
died fighting to free a nation from a Godless Communistic regime did not call it
a “conflict” nor had they “forgotten.” When the flag draped boxes holding the
remains of their loved ones who had laid down their lives to free a nation most
of them had never heard of, they wondered if the price paid was worth it? They
wept with broken hearts as coffins were lowered into freshly-dug graves. Some
lifted their tear-filled eyes to the heavens when they heard the chaplain or
minister quote, “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die.”
Others, when they heard those words wondered what they meant? We
don’t know what took place in the hearts of those young men when they faced
death at the hands of a cruel enemy, but we do know a merciful Savior could
hear their cry just as he heard the cry of a thief hanging on a cross beside
him and answered, “Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.”
Was the war worth the loss of the lives of more than 36,000
young men? Who am I to say? I do know that 50 million South Koreans are free
today to worship as they please in the midst of a free and prosperous nation,
while just a few miles to the north 25 million people in North Korea are living
in poverty and starvation enslaved by an unbelievably cruel dictator. A place
where people watch in horror while new mothers are forced to drown their own
babies. A place where any who would dare to proclaim the name of Christ as
their Savior are subjected to unbelievable torture and death.
WAS IT WORTH IT?
DAD
