What Did We See in Washington D.C.? It was a thrill to see the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers and baseball’s best pitcher; it was a dream come true to eat chocolate in Hershey, Pennsylvania; and it was a joy to meet brothers and sisters in Christ in three congregations that were new to us. But the main thrust of our family time away the last couple of weeks was a visit to Washington D.C. Seeing more than 400,000 tombstones at Arlington National Cemetery and more than 50,000 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial staggers the mind. Moving memorials to others who have sacrificed their lives in service to our country dot the landscape, too. Many people have found America and its causes worth dying for. What is worth your life? Jesus said, “Be faithful [to Me] to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10). I see the Lincoln Memorial most often on pennies that I pull out of my pocket and the U.S. Treasury on $10 bills that pass through my wallet. I knew those edifices were not really pocket-sized, but the immensity of all the buildings that occupy and surround the National Mall was still surprising. Being inside all the thick-walled marble and granite structures couldn’t help but make this boy from the Midwest think what good tornado shelters they would make. I think I felt a little like the disciples with Jesus who were so impressed by Herod’s temple. “But Jesus answered them, ‘You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down’” (Matt. 24:2). I’m sure He would say the same about Washington’s fortresses. Perhaps most insightful was to see the religious sentiments inscribed on parchment and linen and etched in stone everywhere. While forces influencing today’s government keep trying to squeeze faith and God out of everything, our founding fathers and other early leaders could not imagine doing much without the blessing of God and reverence for Him. At the National Archives we beheld the original Declaration of Independence with its homage to “Nature’s God,” its avowal “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” and its “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.” At the Bureau of Engraving and Printing we watched currency being printed and were happy to read the explanation of the Great Seal of the United States on the back of our dollar bill. It was adopted by Congress on June 20, 1782. Both sides of the Seal have a “Glory of God” design at the top; one has the “Eye of Providence”; their placement at the pinnacle of the symbol indicates “the spiritual above the material.” At the Jefferson Memorial, among our third president’s lasting thoughts, we found these sentiments: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secured when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.” At the Lincoln Memorial, we read the great president’s second inaugural address, much of which was consumed with pondering what God must think about the Civil War and slavery. Among his quotations of Scripture were these words from Psalm 19:9, “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” What might our country be if every national leader thought so? “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). Danny Boggs
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 19:47:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015