Love of and for America

Folks, I don’t quite know how to say this, but I am super saddened and in quite a quandary as to what has happened to our Country, the United States of America. We are anything but “united”.

You know, that was Paul’s theme to the letter to the Ephesians, unity among believers. But I have never seen such vitriol and anger and hatred of one political party for the other, and especially of one political party towards a former President of the United States as I have seen over the past six or seven years. I have watched this Country go down the tubes in its relationship between parties like I have never seen before, and none of it, absolutely none of it makes any sense to me! Does it to you? If it does, I wish you would let the rest of us know so we could understand as well!

A lot of my devotions are read by folks as old and younger than me. I’m in my 70’s, you know, the “Over the Hill Gang”, so I have been around the block a time or two like many of you have. When I was growing up as a child, there was a favorite Saturday morning show that us kids liked to watch, and perhaps many of you watched it as well, even for some of you, your grandkids.

It was “Captain Kangaroo”. How many of you remember him? He was the captain with huge pockets full of all kinds of stuff. Every week he had visits from Mr. Greenjeans, Bunny Rabbit, Mr. Moose, and the Old Grandfather Clock that had riddles the Captain could not solve. And the Captain would often read us stories from children’s books that were enjoyable and even taught a lesson of one kind or another.

I remember one Saturday when he read the story of an old woman that found a kitten in her backyard. She took that kitten and nursed it to a healthy female cat. Well, one day the female was joined by a male, and pretty soon there were kittens everywhere. But that wasn’t all, those kittens had kittens that had kittens, kind of like rabbits, you know? Well, one afternoon she heard the most horrible sound as all those cats began biting and scratching and eating each other up until all but one scrawny kitten was left because it hid itself from the fighting when it all started.

Three of my favorite verses, among many, are found in Galatians 5:14-15. Paul wrote, “For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.” Friends and neighbors, that’s exactly what we have been doing these past six or seven years, fighting and scratching and biting one another to death until we’ve almost destroyed our freedoms, our Constitution, our democracy (a term I equate with both political parties and not in just one), and our entire government!

We have just about destroyed ourselves! And done so in the eyes of the other nations of the world!

More than 100 years ago, a French Statesman by the name of De Tocqueville, visited America. And upon his return home, he made two statements about America. In the first one he said, “I sought for the greatness of America in her harbors and rivers and fertile fields, and in her mines and her commerce. But it was not there. I didn’t find the key to America’s greatness until I visited her churches and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness. Only then did I understand the greatness of America’s power. America is great because she is good; and if America ever ceases to be good, then America will cease to be great.” De Tocqueville also said, “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”

These are two pretty powerful statements, but it seems that we have failed to follow these statements in truth and reality. Paul wrote one other verse in this passage that we need to pay attention to, and that is this: “For you are called to freedom, brothers, only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.” Don’t you think it’s high time that we return to God’s righteousness and to His Word, the Bible, and to His admonition to truly love and respect one another?