It was 5th period and we were studying math. Suddenly the day and our lives changed forever. Something had happened in Texas and we would find out from our parents more  when we got home. Mom was sitting in her chair in the living room wiping away tears. Our young president had been killed. It was a moment, that no matter who you were or what you were doing, if you were an American you remember.

The moment that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon; the day when the Space Shuttle exploded. We all remember where we were standing and who was in the room. Then came 9/11 and it seemed that time had stopped for America. Our Congressmen joined together and sang God Bless America. These are just a few of the tiny threads that weave us together as a nation. 

Being an American is almost like being in a marriage. It’s for better or worse, for richer or poorer. Even in the moments when we hate to see what is happening around us, we are still rooted here. joined by the common threads that make us a people. America isn’t at all about black or white, it isn’t about rich and poor or educated and ignorant. The wonderful blessing we know in America is about a single amazing idea. It is the astonishing concept that:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

We are not a perfect nation. That nation will only come with the return of the Lord Jesus. But I am thankful tonight for God’s amazing grace and blessings on our country. I am thankful for the freedom we enjoy every Sunday in church. I am thankful that we can go to the voting booth and live to complain freely the following day if the person we wanted doesn’t get into office. We have more to be thankful for than complain about. So on our America’s birthday let’s all remember to pray for her. Let’s pray so that God will hear from heaven, forgive our sins and heal our land