While we are against the war, we certainly recognize and honor the sacrifice and suffering of so many families who have lost a loved one in this war. I don’t know about you, but sometimes the news coverage and the number of lives lost (more than 3,200 American soldiers, and an estimated 500,000 Iraqi citizens or more) can be a bit mind-numbing. It’s easy to just gloss over those numbers and forget that every one of those lives had a story, a history, something that made them a unique individual created in the image of God. This video is a good reminder of that fact, and I hope will sensitize you, as it did me, to the realities of war. As the Iraq Veterans Memorial site states:

The Iraq Veterans Memorial is an online war memorial that honors the members of the U.S. armed forces who have lost their lives serving in the Iraq War. The memorial is a collection of video memories from family, friends, military colleagues, and co-workers of those that have fallen.

Let us all be mindful of the fact that until this war comes to an end, there will be many more families who will experience the suffering expressed by those profiled on this site. May the Holy Spirit remind us to keep all of these families in our prayers.

Jeff Carr is the Chief Operations Officer for Sojourners/Call to Renewal.