Military cemeteries are some of the most eerie and moving places anywhere on earth. All those headstones are exactly alike—thousands of them in neat rows, all engraved with a branch of service, all stating a military rank. In a military cemetery, you can almost hear the ghostly boom of artillery and the rattle of rifle fire.

But it’s actually quiet there. Memorial Day is a great time to reflect on the sacrifices made by so many men and women in defense of their country and in bringing order and peace where there had been chaos. It’s a time to reflect that many of those warriors never came home—their bodies rest in Europe or Asia. How grateful we the living can be!

The machines and technology of war remorselessly charge forward. The insane power of today’s aircraft, submarines, missiles, and nuclear weaponry will make the next big war a global nightmare. But as you ponder those military graves, be comforted that God has the last word. He is mightier than any human weapons, and he steers and guides the affairs of nations toward his redemptive mission: “The valiant lie plundered, they sleep their last sleep; not one of the warriors can lift his hands. At your rebuke, God of Jacob, both horse and chariot lie still. It is you alone who are to be feared. Who can stand before you when you are angry? From heaven you pronounced judgment, and the land feared and was quiet—when you, God, rose up to judge, to save all the afflicted of the land” (Psalm 76:5-9).