Last World War I Survivor

While watching the History Channel the other night, my children began asking me a few questions about World War I (I think they thought I lived through it).  Anyway, I was telling them that when I was their age, I knew many World War I veterans.  It just so happened that the very next day, one of the lead news stories was the passing of the oldest American veteran from World War I. His name was Frank Buckles. He was born in 1901 and lived to the age of 110.

Are you kidding me?  How can it be?  Where have all these people gone?  How can it be that the last of that generation was 110 years old?  Where has time gone?

While generations have come and gone since the beginning of time, this one has come and gone in my lifetime, and it has caused me to pause and think about the brevity of life. Time moves on. It seems like yesterday that I watched as men from both WWI and WWII marched down the streets in Veterans parades.  But apparently, it’s been longer than yesterday.

Friends, you better serve the Lord while you can, because sooner than you realize, your time on earth will be done. “What is your life? It is but a vapor that appears for a short time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14).

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