Flags by the Wreckage of a B-17 Bomber

 Over July 4th weekend, Jonathan was able to take time to take our family on a little camping trip in the Laramie Mountains in northern Colorado. 

Early Monday morning, the family got up early to hit the trail a little after 7 o'clock. Jonathan and the children planned to hike to a site where a B-17 bomber crashed during World War II, when eight airmen were training and ran into a storm and lost their lives. 

Debris from the crash was strewn for many, many yards down the rocky slope.

Jonathan and the boys identified wheels, fuselage, axles, and other airplane parts rusted with the weather.

The names of the airmen were inscribed on rocks or stone. 

Little red, white and blue American flags were placed respectfully by parts of the wreckage.

Somehow, those little flags brought a whole new perspective to the scene. 

The little flags just made all the difference.

They turned the site of the wreckage into something special, 

hopeful,

beautiful,

sacred.

It wasn't just a wreck now.

It was a memorial.
It was a place where the dead did not die in vain. 

It was a site that had purpose and meaning and beauty.

And in the middle of the wreckages that we see on a daily basis on the news or newsfeeds,

the protests and the graffiti and the fires and the toppled monuments, 

there are still those who are placing flags.

Not flags of surrender, but flags of purpose.
Not flags for just certain lives that matter, but flags of courage and devotion and hope for all mankind.

Now there is a mountain trail, little and little-known, a trail to the site of a wrecked bomber.

The trail runs around Twin Lakes and along a beautiful mountain creek.

It's a trail that leads us not to where men have destroyed lives, but to where men have given their lives.

It's a trail that leads not just to wreckage, but to reflection, devotion, and hope.