In God We Trust
I did some late-in-the-day Black Friday shopping this year, in an effort to catch the deals but avoid the crowds. I found myself spending way too much time in a used book store, looking for quality picture books to read to my third-graders. After I had investigated the Christmas books, I began to look for patriotic books, as our third and fourth graders will work together to present a patriotic show in the new year.
As I looked (this shopping trip was really a lot longer than I had planned) I remembered the last day of school before Thanksgiving break, when we had a school-wide prayer service thanking God for our many, many blessings. The prayer service closed with “America the Beautiful.” My third-graders proudly put their hymnals away and sang all four verses of the song from memory, without reading the words, giving me goosebumps. While the words are a bit idealstic, it was really beautiful to see. It is easy to become disillusioned and jaded with so many things...our country, our Church, our faith...but I think there is so much to be said for holding the ideal in great esteem. We know that many of our founding Fathers, who are often idealized for the purpose of teaching our children, might have led lives that were not the paragon of virtue. Does that nullify the good they did for our country? No, of course not! That is mercy. We know that from experience and we know that from our faith.
In the third verse of America the Beautiful, we sing about heroes “Who more than self their country loved/ And mercy more than life.” Patriotism, like faith, teaches children to remember there is something bigger than themselves. And what a beautiful Christlike message that is. Our entire faith is about living for more than we can see, about putting our trust in a reality that is often intangible, about knowing that even the “last enemy” of death has been destroyed. Why, then, do we limit ourselves to what we can see, whether it be good or bad?
Often, the clash of one’s ideals with the reality of a situation is a crisis point. This is an opportunity for growth. Think of the Apostles. Jesus’ closest friends, too afraid to stand by Him at His cross. One of my students drew a beautiful picture the other day of the 12 Apostles, each with his name written above his head, standing around the cross. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that in reality, their fear won out. Because we know each of the Apostles eventually faced his own “cross,” his own Golgotha of martyrdom.
God is ever, ever merciful. And as we sing- or pray- in America the Beautiful, “May God thy gold refine.” He can and will take all things and arrange them for His glory-- even if they need to be refined like gold in a furnace, which involves burning and melting and can’t possibly be a process that feels good. Our country, our faith, our families are not ideal. That doesn’t make the ideal any less real or any less beautiful...or any less worthy to believe in. We must hold tight to the ideal, and let God lead us through the refining process so that we might become part of that great ideal, the building of the Kingdom of God...in our homes, our communities, and our hearts.
