Independence Day 2024

Happy Independence Day, everyone!  Freedom is a wonderful thing.  Last night we drove to town.  Our town has a population of 9,375 people and I think every last one of them was in town preparing to watch a fireworks display put on on the 3rd of July.  In the past, fireworks were set off by the fire department in the Oil & Gas Park.  They now set them off at the Jennings airport at 9PM.  At 8:45 crowds of people filled the park, facing south ready for the show.  There was a live band on the stage playing.  

The park was so full of people, we were afraid we wouldn't find a parking spot.  Right next door, though, there is a nursing home.  Our church has services there for the resident on the third Wednesday each month.  We decided to pull in the parking lot there and park to watch the fireworks display.  It was a touching sight.  The nurses had the residents in the parking lot in their wheelchairs all lined up to see the show!  Beautiful!  After twenty minutes of oohs and ahhs and a grand finale, we headed home.

On the Fourth of July we drove to Kinder for hot dogs, hamburgers, sausage and snacks with my Mom and Dad and Jenny and Brett and their whole family.  Before eating, we did what we always do.  We held hands in a big circle that stretched across two rooms and Dad returned thanks to the Almighty for our great country, our family, our health and all the many blessings He has bestowed upon us.

Faith, Family, Freedom and Food...

And when the prayer ended with "in Jesus' Name, Amen," we lined up to eat.  And we ate!

We had Root Beer floats and Bomb pops and cut a locally-grown watermelon and enjoyed each other's company.

We should keep our Nation and our Nation's leaders in our prayers, whether we agree with them or not.  I was thinking about the Preamble to the Constitution the other day:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense...  and the list goes on.  All honorable and laudable goals.  I realize that those things won't be realized in perfection until our Lord returns, but I pray that our constitutional republic and this experiment in liberty will continue to stand.  We lift our Nation and it's leaders up to the Lord in prayer.  May God Bless America!