July 4, A Day to Give Thanks

With Memorial Day occurring just a few weeks ago and with our nation’s 250th birthday just a few days away, let me ask you a question.  Of all the memorials that can be seen in Washington, DC, which would you say is most impactful to you?  Is it one of the presidential monuments – Washington, Jefferson, or Lincoln? Or is it one of the war memorials like WW II, Korea, or Viet Nam?

Until I recently revisited that question in my own mind, I would have given you a split answer – most impressive and most meaningful. The most impressive to me has been, and still is, the Korean War Memorial.  Those lifelike statues comprising a group of soldiers making their way through a battlefield is most impressive to me. The most meaningful up until I gave it further thought, was the Viet Nam Memorial because that was my generation’s war.

When I revisited this question recently, I came to realize the most meaningful one for me has changed and now is, ironically, one I’ve never seen.  It’s the WWII Memorial.  I’ve only heard about it, but I heard about it from a reliable source.  I heard about it from my now deceased WWII veteran father.  WWII was my Mama’s and Daddy’s war – especially my Daddy’s.  He fought in Germany and Belgium – most  notably in the Battle of the Bulge. My Daddy saw the memorial a couple of years after it opened when my cousin took Daddy and my uncle to Washington to see it.  I regret to this day that I was unable to take the trip with them.  When they returned, Daddy told me all about the trip – especially about the WWII Memorial.  What stands out in my mind about his description is nothing about the physical makeup of it, but a chance encounter he had with a young woman and her middle-aged mother while they and my Daddy viewed the same section.  The daughter looked at my Daddy and asked him if he’d fought in the War.  Daddy told her that he had.  She simply said in response, “Thank you.”  As Daddy recounted that story he said to me, “That’s the first time anyone has ever thanked me for fighting in that war.”  That young woman brought some healing to a place in my Daddy’s heart and soul that I had no idea existed.  I thank God today for her grateful heart. Memorials in Washington are intended to remind us not to forget the high personal cost that came with our nation’s wars over 250 years that have made us free and have kept us free.  Memorials are intended to make us thankful people.

July 4, 2026, will naturally be a day of celebration.  But I want to challenge us to also make it a day of remembrance and reflection regarding what we know about the beginning of our nation 250 years ago, so it can also be for us a day of thanksgiving.

• Let’s remember and be thankful for those men who at great risk to their lives, their families’ lives, and their personal wealth, were brave enough and believed enough in what they were doing, to sign their names to the Declaration of Independence.
• Let’s remember and be thankful for those men within that larger group of signers whose strong belief in God and HIs moral law caused them to understand that it is God who has given every person the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
• Let’s remember and be thankful for those individuals who fought and defeated a much larger army with much greater resources, all the while enduring some of the most horrendous physical conditions possible.
• Let’s remember and be thankful for those individuals who had the wisdom and willingness necessary to hash out their differences politically and philosophically to create a constitution that could endure these 250 years.
• Let’s remember and be thankful for those individuals who recognized the deficiencies in that original constitution  and had the wisdom to put forth the ten amendments called the Bill of Rights which have all these many years guaranteed our citizens our most cherished personal rights.

As we spend time in reflection and thanksgiving, let’s remember who we need to thank.  We need to thank God.  Romans 13:1 says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”  Acts 17:24-26 says, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.  And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,  that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.”

Let’s thank God that it was His will for our nation to exist and that He gifted and inspired statesmen who could put together one of, if not the best governmental system to ever exist. As we do so, let’s reflect  upon the sobering words of President John Adams, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”  My fear for our nation today is that we are bent on proving John Adams right.