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mudder_bbc posted a photo:

Today is American Independence Day, aka July 4th, 4th of July. I will not be celebrating it in a traditional way with parades, picnics, or family get-togethers, but I did wake up this morning thinking of my country & what it means to me. I searched my home for a symbolic star & was interested to find only one--the simple star in the wooden nativity scene that I display year-round. For me, my love of country & of God are intertwined & I am most thankful for both. Being a librarian, I couldn't resist doing a little research on star symbolism. Not surprisingly, I found a plethora of information. What caught my imagination was a quote from the nineteenth century minister, Henry Ward Beecher (brother of Harriet Beecher Stow, who wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin"). He said, of the American flag,

"A thoughtful mind when it sees a nation's flag, sees not the flag, but the nation itself. And whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag, the government, the principles, the truths, the history that belongs to the nation that sets it forth. The American flag has been a symbol of Liberty and men rejoiced in it.
The stars upon it were like the bright morning stars of God, and the stripes upon it were beams of morning light. As at early dawn the stars shine forth even while it grows light, and then as the sun advances that light breaks into banks and streaming lines of color, the glowing red and intense white striving together, and ribbing the horizon with bars effulgent, so, on the American flag, stars and beams of many-colored light shine out together ...."

May we all celebrate the freedoms & the gifts in our every-day lives. May we nurture them in our various ways, day by day.

July 4, 2008