“Are you ready to embark on a great
adventure?” I asked our youth before we left Lexington for the Salisbury Amtrak
station bound for Washington, D.C.
Travel is always a great adventure. Venturing out of your comfort zone to explore
historical sites and discover new truths, travel is the best education. The greatest and most memorable blessings of
travel come from the serendipities that you can never plan—those amazing
moments of profound encounter that will become legendary before you return
home.
The
focus of our journey was Religious Liberty and we started our tour on sacred
ground at Arlington National Cemetery where the high price of freedom is
transparent. Using the ANC App, we were
able to locate the grave of our hometown hero, Josh Harris. Standing before his grave was a profound
experience of humility and gratitude.
Freedom is never free.
The
Jefferson Memorial is my favorite place to meditate on religious liberty. Standing in the imposing rotunda, reflecting
on those eloquent words that sparked a revolution and defined a nation, and
realizing that our founding fathers really were placing their lives on the line
for freedom, this is the perfect place to talk about what true liberty
means. When we arrived at the Jefferson
we were not alone. We were greeted by an
amazing choir—a 1,300 voice choir! The
Millennial Choir, based primarily in western states, had traveled to DC to
present several concerts and they were filming stirring religious and patriotic
songs on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial.
As we stood in the rotunda and looked at Jefferson’s words, “Almighty
God hath created the mind free,” the angelic chords of Amazing Grace echoed
throughout the memorial. Oh my!
A
little later in the morning we arrived at the Korean War Memorial to a somber
observance commemorating the 66th anniversary of the beginning of
the war. Korean leaders were reading the
names of every South Korean solider killed in the conflict, a ceremony that would
last until almost midnight. I saw an old
Korean man with a War Veteran cap on. I
shook his hand and commented on the fact that he fought in the war. I could tell he didn’t understand English
very well, but he understood what I said and nodded his head. Then I told him my father fought in the
Korean War. When he realized what I was
saying, he stood erect as if at attention and then he humbly bowed before me. I was overwhelmed, deeply touched! My father never thought his service amounted
to much. The Korean War was the
forgotten war. But on this day, this
Korean man’s act of gratitude was a powerful expression of grace that I wished
my father had lived to see.
Later
that afternoon we were standing on the northern end of the Ellipse, looking at the
White House. It was evident by all the
activity that something was taking place.
We heard a noise behind us and turned to see three mighty Marine
helicopters flying in by the Jefferson Memorial, passing to the west of the
Washington Monument. Two of the
helicopters peeled away while one flew right over our heads and hovered over
the South Lawn of the White House, gracefully turning and gently landing as
soft as a feather. The President of the
United States had just come home!
These
are difficult days for our nation.
Political discourse is toxic; there is little confidence in our
government; we are a polarized and divided people. But the lofty principles of freedom and
democracy that founded this great nation have not diminished. As long as we remain faithful to our
foundational values and teach our children the lessons of liberty, as long as
we honor those who paid the ultimate price for freedom by giving their last
full measure of devotion, as long as our youth visit the sacred temples of
democracy and dream great dreams, and as long as God’s amazing grace continues
to echo throughout the rotunda of this blessed land, we will have great hope
and promise for the future.
Our
great adventure was filled with serendipities and sealed with great
blessing! Blessed is the nation whose
God is the Lord!
