Psalm 54:7 “You have delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.”

It was a beautiful day. The sky was a bright blue with not a cloud in the sky.  As I entered through this pristine walkway, I was amazed at the preciseness of the trees.  It was as if the gardener took out a ruler and measured each branch before he took his shears to make the cut.  Each tree and plant had been placed in just the perfect spot.  It covered me with a canopy of green that opened up into a beautiful picture of the bluest of water and green lush carpet of grass.  The care that was taken told me this was a place that was meant to move us. I looked to my left and I stopped in my tracks.  Spread over acres of lovely green grass were 9,387 white crosses.  Each cross was placed exactly the same height and same distance from each other.  The care and thought that was given in this place called Normandy, reveals so much about who we were and who we should strive to be.  It is where we behold the good, the bad and the ugly of humanity.  I could not help but see the irony of the serenity of this place.  The men and women whose bodies are represented by those crosses never got to witness the tranquility that is now Normandy.  They entered these beaches with bombs falling and guns blazing.  Yet these men and women were fighting for what they thought was worth dying for and they did.  Each cross represented a Life cut short from all their hopes and dreams.  Those crosses also represented loved ones at home who would have to face a telegram with the worst news possible that their loved one would not be returning. There are places of battles that we can touch and see such as Normandy.  This place was once a spot of complete destruction. It has been returned to a place of tranquility. There is much pain that has been buried in that graveyard, but still people come to remember.  We too have fought a battle.  Our scars are not ones that are visibly seen, but they are there.  We have been pruned and planted with the loving hands of the Great Gardener.  He has taken our landscape of destruction and turned it into a place of beauty. I was reminded that all of us who have lost a child are represented by a white cross.  We have fought our own battle.  We were continually barraged with the weapons of the enemy who wanted nothing more than to leave our lives in shambles.  We leaned on our Lord who continually picked us up when we felt we could no longer go on.  With His help and our band of sisters, we fought the good fight.  He has taken our landscape of destruction and turned it into a place of beauty. Lord, You make beautiful things out of the dust.                                                                                                     – Michele