Living between D-Day and VE Day
Today marks 80 years since VE Day — celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of Germany's unconditional surrender at the end of World War II.
There have been and will be street parties, proclamations, RAF flypasts and more. And on this eightieth anniversary, I want to suggest two lessons we might draw from it.
Thanksgiving to Almighty God
The first one comes from Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons eighty years ago today. He noted that after the end of WWI, the House ‘did not feel inclined for debate or business, but desired to offer thanks to Almighty God’. Churchill then moved:
‘That this House do now attend at the Church of St. Margaret, Westminster, to give humble and reverent thanks to Almighty God for our deliverance from the threat of German domination’.
Those who lived through those terrible days knew that God had sustained them, and that nothing would be more fitting on the day of victory than to acknowledge their thanks to him. If that is not our own first reaction eighty years on, I would suggest that it is not a change for the better.
Remember when we're living
There is however another lesson that we can take, or at least an illustration that we can draw, from VE Day. And that is that it came almost a year after D-Day. D-Day was the military name given to the Allied invasion of France on 6 June 1944. It was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France, and the rest of Western Europe, and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front.
And yet, incredible as that victory was, it would be almost another year until VE Day. For eleven months, the fighting would continue, and many more would die. D-Day guaranteed that VE Day would eventually happen. But much conflict lay in between.
Christians have often used this as an illustration of the time in which we are now living. Jesus’ death on the cross was D-Day. On it, he won a decisive victory over Satan, sin and death.
And yet the war is not over. One day, VE Day will dawn and Jesus will return. But until that day, the battles will continue. Suffering will still be a reality. We will still face temptation. And yet in the midst of that, it helps to know that VE Day is coming. In fact, D-Day guarantees that VE Day will happen. Jesus’ victory on the cross guarantees that one day he will return.
What about suffering?
This also helps us respond when people use the reality of suffering to try and disprove God’s existence. For one thing, the Bible is clear that suffering was not part of the world as God originally made it. Suffering and death feel so wrong to us because they weren’t part of God’s original plan.
On top of that, the D-Day/VE Day illustration helps answer the question: ‘Why doesn’t God DO something about suffering?’ The answer is that he has. He sent his Son to earth. Jesus’ miracles are also described in the Bible as ‘signs’. They’re not things that we’re meant to try and recreate, as some well-meaning Christians suppose. Rather, they’re signs pointing to the world as it once was – and one day will be again. They’re little glimpses of the ‘new heavens and new earth’ (2 Peter 3:13) breaking into this broken world.
Get ready for VE Day by responding rightly to D-Day
And so as we mark the eightieth anniversary of VE Day today. We’re thankful for those who fought – many of whom sacrificed their lives. We honour the remaining veterans. But may we not forget to give, as Churchill put it, ‘humble and reverent thanks to Almighty God’ for the deliverance granted then, and the peace we enjoy today.
For those interested in finding out more about Christianity, the gap between D-Day and VE Day helps explain how Christians look at the world today. Suffering and temptation are an ongoing reality. Battles will be lost. And yet ultimate victory is guaranteed because of what happened at the cross.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was much optimism about human progress. Two world wars shattered those illusions. It would be hard to read about those conflicts and to deny that ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are objective realities. And yet according to the Bible, ‘no-one is good but God alone’. So how can we be ready for Jesus’ return on the ultimate VE Day? Only by responding rightly to D-Day, and the victory won for us then.
A version of this article was published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 8th May 2025.
