Why D-Day Still Matters
It’s been 81 years since American troops and soldiers of the Allied Expeditionary Force descended upon the coast of France in an unprecedented military operation to wrest control of Europe back from the Nazis.
Known forevermore as “D-Day,” the June 6, 1944 operation was codenamed “Operation Overlord” and included over 5,000 ships and more than 150,000 troops landing on five beaches in Normandy. By some estimates, there are only a few thousand D-Day veterans remaining. They’d have to be in their late 90s or over 100 years of age.
To be sure, D-Day was historic, a radical gamechanger that shifted the balance of world power. But given everything that’s happened between then and now, it would be easy to chalk it up as just another entry in our history textbooks.
That would be a mistake.
As Christians especially, we ignore D-Day at our own peril. Even 80-plus years later, it can still teach — and convict.
A praying president
Once the invasion got underway, President Franklin Roosevelt took to the radio airwaves to lead the nation in prayer. Never had so many Americans prayed together, led neither by a priest nor pastor, but by the president of the United States.
Composed days earlier with the help of FDR’s daughter and son-in-law and inspired by the president’s worn copy of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, the words to the prayer were published in the country’s newspapers. The wide distribution allowed Americans to recite the words of divine petition along with their president. It’s estimated that 100 million Americans tuned in, a number even more impressive when you consider the entire population of the country was just 130 million people.
Prayer has long been the most powerful yet underused of all human acts. That we have the privilege and capability to communicate directly with the Creator of all things is too implausible for some and too intimidating for others. And yet that’s precisely what we’re able to do — anywhere, anytime and about anything.
We find ourselves as a nation mired in unprecedented difficulty. We take to social media to lament and rage, but what if we instead got down on our knees and collectively appealed to the Lord?
Bigger than parties or politics
Clashes of culture require patience and persistence. Yes, we vote. But we also must live faithfully, lovingly, graciously, and cooperatively.
The pursuit of justice and the prayers of God’s people eventually dismantled the Nazi regime and liberated Jews throughout Europe — no small feat given Hitler’s determination to snuff out human life and perpetuate evil. D-Day is our reminder to fight, first on our knees, for the truths ordained by God — and to trust Him with the outcome.
It’s long been a lie that people of the Christian faith engage culture to establish a theocracy. Instead, we pour ourselves into the effort because societies that welcome faith thrive — and those that reject it fail.
