Happy Birthday, America!

     Happy birthday, America!  Thank You, Lord, for this great nation and for the incredible gift of being born here, in this place, in this time.  For those of us born here, it's so easy to take all the blessings of our citizenship for granted.  So trite, but so true.  Every one of us who live in this land of the free and  home of brave have been born on third base.  We have been given so much just by the nature of the location of our birth, and it is all simply a reflection of Your grace.
     Yes, our nation is far from perfect.  Yes, injustice and poverty and evil still reside in this land.  But we still live in a place where we can openly worship the Lord we love.   We still live in a place where anyone and everyone, with hard work and determination, can make their lives better for themselves and their families.  We still in a country that cares about the gift of freedom in other nations and is willing to make sacrifices in order that others can enjoy the hope and promise of that freedom.
     So, I'm ready to eat some watermelon and ice cream, wave the flag, marvel at fireworks, laugh with family and friends, and rejoice that God sovereignly placed us in this great nation.  But all the while, might we remember, we are only passing through.  As much as we love this nation--even with all her flaws--we are citizens of an infinitely greater country.  A country without evil.  A country without racism or poverty or tears or failure or fear.  A perfect, eternal, joyous, glorious country.
     I love the words of C.S. Lewis--
          "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.  If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud.  Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.  If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or to be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage.
           I must keep alive in myself the desire for the my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same."
     Amen!  Lord, thank You for this great nation--long may she prosper and reflect Your glory and goodness.  But may we all remember on this, her birthday, that our real country, our real home, is with You.  And that home will be glorious beyond imagining.  Help us to live now as citizens of our eternal country.
     To God be the glory.