NEVER HOPELESS

Honestly, I don’t even know where to begin. Right now there has passed through me such a chill that even though there is a familiarity with which I’m about to write, it pierces my heart anew each time.

This week is a most special week as we hopefully look forward to celebrating the day dedicated to the one who gave us all birth, our mothers. I would be remiss if there weren’t at least a few posts dedicated to our mothers and the telling of some of the greatest acts of motherhood ever told. The story that follows has been burned into my memory mainly because of “Saving Private Ryan” where a General is chiding a subordinate who thinks it too dangerous/costly and worthless to go find a single private, the last remaining son of a mother who lost all her sons but one. The general pulls out a letter from President Abraham Lincoln that was tucked in a book and begins reciting it from memory………

“EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 1864. ”

“To MRS. BIXBY, BOSTON, MASS.”

” Dear Madam—I have been shown, in the files of the War Department, a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

” I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which shall attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

” I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

” Yours very sincerely and respectfully, A. LINCOLN.”

Can you imagine the loss?

Your mother loves you so. You, if you are a mother, know the love you have for your children. Imagine losing five sons. That was truly a sacrifice laid on the alter of freedom. But why? What would cause a mother to have suffered such a loss? I dare say that there existed at that time, the hope of a Nation that was growing, stretching, fighting for life, a united life and the price had to be paid with blood. That mother sent her sons off to battle to fight for the Union never imagining that all her boys would be lost.

Thankfully, the letter proved to be highly inaccurate. But the point remains. A mother sacrifices so much and that sacrifice must never be lost or forgotten.

Remember your mother this coming Sunday.