Family Time and American Freedom

Time away to be with family and to relax a bit is always good.  We enjoyed more than a week with our granddaughter, keeping her tradition of being with us for New Hope’s VBS. This was her sixth year.  Then we met her parents in Tampa, and together enjoyed the Rays baseball game on Saturday night.  Fleda and I also visited a cousin of mine in Wesley Chapel, and we all visited Madison’s great-grandmother, who is in a nursing center in St. Pete.

Fleda and I enjoyed our usual quiet Fourth of July at home.  We watched the Independence Day celebration in Washington on the steps of the Capitol and on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.

As we listened to powerful patriotic music, I thought about how securing freedom cost the pilgrims and the colonial patriots more than we can fully imagine. Then I found this piece by Robert Franklin, the president of Morehouse College.
 
“Before the original celebration of independence came great suffering and self-denial.  One hundred and fifty years before the Revolutionary War, the pilgrims of Plymouth (1620) endured brutal winters.  In fact, the history books indicate that 46 of the original 102 colonists perished from the lack of fresh food to eat and the inability to treat resulting diseases . . . . Think about it.  In the 1600s, Americans fought the elements to survive.  During the 1700s, Americans fought the British for their independence.  In the 1800s, Americans fought each other over the moral issue of slavery.  And during the 1900s, Americans fought international powers to protect freedom in the world.  In the days of the early 21st century, a divided nation would begin to slow march toward healing and unity . . . .  Then on 9/11, we were shaken to our collective core when a fateful attack killed several thousand.  I am proud to say, however, that in the fashion of our forefathers and mothers – with God as a directing force – we rallied to make sense of and learn from that devastating day in world history.”

I believe Dr. Franklin is right, and I pray that Americans will learn even more about how to seek God as a directing force and come together to find strength “at the broken places.”