Our Founding Father

Happy birthday America. You're nearly 246 years old, but you don't look a day over 50! But seriously, in just a few days we'll celebrate the 4th of July and enjoy many time-honored traditions - hot dogs, fireworks, marching bands and all the festivities. Our Founding Fathers got this party started and they gave us a great country. They were men of courage and men of faith. We owe them a debt of gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy, but we owe an even greater thanks to our true Founding Father - the One whose presence stretches all the way back...before time itself even began.

Before any of us was even a glimmer in our parents’ eyes, our Founding Father was there, creating and loving this world into existence “from the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans white with foam.” God is a lover, a giver and a creator.

Think for a moment of the most creative person you know…or perhaps someone we all know like Jeff Bezos who started Amazon out of thin air in his garage. What began as an idea in his head turned into a multi billion dollar corporation that none of us can live without. But his creativity is no match for the creativity of our Founding Father who created 17,500 species of butterflies…we’re talking butterflies people! He could’ve created 80 species and we’d still have more than enough to admire, but no, our God goes way beyond our wildest dreams when he creates!

Or consider the philanthropists who give away billions of dollars to help eradicate diseases and lift people out of poverty (think Buffett and Gates). Their donations are beyond generous by any human standards, but they’re a drop in the bucket when you consider what our Founding Father gave us: his only Son who died for our salvation so we can spend eternity with him. How’s that for a gift!

Or think of the most loving person in the world…someone bursting with love and overflowing with goodness. Mother Teresa comes to mind. She was a blueprint for heroic sanctity, but even she’s no match for the unconditional love and goodness flowing from our Founding Father, who “sheds his grace” on you and me every single day.

I think you get the picture. We’re blessed not only to be living in the greatest country on earth, but we’re beyond blessed to be loved and sustained by the unending presence of our Founding Father, who never takes his eyes off us and who loves us with reckless abandon.

So as we get ready to celebrate another year of our nation’s birth, let’s give thanks to our Founding Father and ask him to bless our great country; to “stand beside her and guide her, through the night with a light from above.”