The ANZAC Bridge
Hebrews 13:16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
ANZAC day. Such a sobering commemoration. Those young boys from New Zealand and Australia headed off to that war on the other side of the earth, not really knowing what waited for them. They couldn’t have imagined the horror and the carnage.
We look back on it now, knowing how it turned out. They, on the other hand, simply had no idea that many of them wouldn’t return from that beach in Turkey.
There’s a bridge in Sydney where I live. It’s called the ANZAC bridge. An at one end, on either side of the six lanes of traffic, stand two tall, bronze statues.
One of an Australian soldier wearing a slouch hat. The other of a Kiwi soldier, wearing the characteristic lemon squeezer, as we used to call them in the army. Every time I drive past them, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
we will remember them. Lest we forget.
Those young men, and indeed the young women who went to that terrible war in supporting roles, gave all they had. Everything.
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Hebrews 13:16)
I wonder, whether in today’s generation, in today’s young folk, in you and me … I wonder whether that giving, sharing, sacrificial spirit – the ANZAC spirit – still lives on. Or are we so consumed with life, with the things of this world, with buying this and having that and holidaying there and searching out that perfect cup of coffee … that we’ve forgotten what it is to share what we have and make sacrifices for those around us.
It’s a sobering thought. What do you think? As you look around at the people who surround you day to day, as you watch the news at night, what do you see? A spirit of sacrifice, or a rising spirit of entitlement and demands? Hmm?
And, honestly, as you look in the mirror, as you weigh your own heart, what do you find? The ANZAC spirit alive and well, a heart to share what you have, a desire to sacrifice for others, or the shallowness of the me generation? Hmm?
Honestly, that’s what I think about every time I drive past the statues of the Kiwi and the Aussie diggers, standing as sentinels, as reminders on the ANZAC bridge.
A bridge that remembers them. But are we, you and I, are we a people who remember them, in our priorities and in the way we live our lives? Really?
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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