MORE THAN FIREWORKS

 

Tuesday, July 2, 2024

 

MORE THAN FIREWORKS

 

Isa 51:1-2

51 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

 

          Only two more days, we say, and we can celebrate our nation’s freedom from tyranny but that is incorrect or, at least, incomplete. On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress ended its debate and approved the resolution proposed on June 7 by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia and seconded by Adams:

 

Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

 

In Adams’s mind, approval of the resolution was worth celebrating, year after year. He was so excited, he wrote one of his many letters to his wife, Abigail, back home in Massachusetts:

 

The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. —I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

 

The decision to be free gave birth to another document that is today the center of great controversy. It begins with: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

 

A full one-third of our government is devoted to the task of fully understanding and clearly interpreting the constitution. It stands as the last appeal of doubtful disputations. But what happens if a nation forgets its foundation? The result is that justice is twisted, tranquility is disturbed, and she becomes defenseless. The blessings of liberty fade along with our understanding of “the hole of the pit from whence we were digged.”

 

Ps 85:6-7

6 Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?

7 Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.