For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but
of power, love, and self-discipline.
2 Timothy 1:7(NLT)
At Pleasant Hill UMC a new
flag was erected in the cemetery this week to honor our country and veterans of
military service. It’s an inspiring
sight!
Big things tend to stay in
your memory. One extremely large flag
stands as if etched in my mind; it is the flag which flew over Baltimore Harbor
at Ft. McHenry in 1814. It’s big enough
to cover a two-car garage.
It was at Ft. McHenry, the
morning after an attack on American soil that Francis Scott Key wrote our
National Anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner.
The flag, flying from a 189’ pole, was so big it could be seen waving in
the breeze from 10 miles out to sea.
Perhaps, in your mind’s eye you
can see the haze of smoke from bombs
bursting in air. All through the
night the flashes illumined a flag, still intact, proclaiming our freedom! By dawn’s
early light that flag was still waving over a free people; the flag declared
the sacrifice of men’s lives as the evidence of the re-birth of freedom for the
coming generations.
The question is: what held up the flag?
The answer (in a physical
sense) is found when you go into one of the barracks at Ft. McHenry and dig down 9 feet in the ground. There you will find two massive oak timbers,
eight feet long, joined at their centers, forming a cross. That pedestal is what anchored the 63 yard
long flagpole. The anchor was unseen,
but provided a firm foundation for the flag.
If you look for a deeper
meaning than the physical, you have to consider the spirit of freedom that has
elevated ordinary men and women to be extraordinarily brave in the face of
insurmountable odds throughout more than two centuries.
Another question then must be
asked, what holds up that spirit?
The Declaration of
Independence says all of us were created
by God. The spirit of freedom we
celebrate with parades and flag-waving came from the One Who breathed the
breath of life into man. He put it
there, and we, ordinary human beings, created to be the crown of God’s
creation, are pulled toward magnificent acts of unusual self-sacrifice as we
respond to that freedom placed inside us.
This is truly God’s gift of
freedom that literally keeps on giving!
For You Today
From now until next November
(the merciful end to the presidential race and all the debates, ads and
election hoopla) it will be tempting to believe some of the positions the
various candidates relentlessly present.
One of those candidates will serve in the Oval office for the next four
years, and our job will be to pray for that person and all who govern.
But in all the campaigning,
flag waving and passion, just remember that freedom is not man’s idea, and it
is not the domain of Republicans, Democrats or Independents; it is God’s gift
to His children to not only think right, but to do right.
Think about that out on the
Rocky Road today…and have a great day!
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