The Medal of Grace

I was watching a documentary on Netflix last night called The Medal of Honor. I was going to continue my stride of re-watching The Office but I felt a pull to watch something a little bit more educational. The documentary was a series of episodes about men who had taken heroic actions to earn the United States Medal of Honor. There was something that caught my attention from the very beginning of the film. Each man being interviewed talked about love. Yes, love. Out of all the things in the world for Medal of Honor recipients to talk about, they spoke about love. They did not speak about just any kind of love though, they were not talking about a “romantic” kind of love. The love these men spoke about was sacrifice. You will not be able to understand real love until someone steps in front of you and takes the bullet you deserved, the bullet that was about to hit you. When a leader puts himself in front of his men, he loves them. He puts them before himself and forgets himself completely. What greater love is there than that?

The medal recipients tell many of their amazing stories throughout the documentary. Most men express that we, as civilians, will never be able to fathom the love they’ve gotten to experience. Honor, justice, freedom, and sacrifice. I couldn’t help but wonder about one word that was missing from that documentary. The word Grace. What is a more beautiful picture of Grace than someone taking something that someone else deserved? Each story is a reflection of the most amazing sacrifice we could have ever known. We can experience that kind of love without someone actually, physically, standing in front of us to take a bullet. Christ already did that. He stood in front of his sons and daughters and let sin hit him head on. It was the greatest sacrifice ever made in human history. I have experienced a love that is beyond anything I have ever known. As those men were speaking in the documentary I could only help but absolutely agree that yes, it is love. Each story of sacrifice is a beautiful picture of Grace and, yes, true love. Love that does not question. Love that is patient. Love that is kind. Love that doesn’t make any sense. Perfect love.