Lest We Forget

I stood back trying to get everything included in the shot. I had just finished switching out the angel wings for the vintage flag that will grace the old gate hanging center stage over the sofa. I had intended to put the colors up before Memorial Day and leave it through the 4th, but I guess I got preoccupied with other tasks and forgot. I plugged in "Pulliam Squad," the family Facebook group, and hit "Send."

As the "thumbs up" and "heart" emojis began rolling in, I noticed something in the picture that had escaped me before. There, hanging from the very top of the gate was my little, framed cross-stitch with the words, "Gather Together" scrolled across in script. I fixed my gaze earnestly on those words and allowed my eyes... and my heart... to connect the dots I had so accidentally drawn.

I couldn't help but think of the events of the past week, the past month, the past couple of years: Supreme Court decisions, school shootings, societal unrest and upheaval. The flag reminds me that we ARE still one nation under God, but the words, "Gather Together" seem so futile... so far from reality. Sides have been chosen and lines etched into the ground over so many issues... so many walls have been erected to keep us from being. one.

I feel as though we've collectively and subconsciously been fidgeting with the hem, picking at the loose threads in the fabric of this country for a long while, but now.... Now we've moved from idle fraying to active shredding, ripping as fast as we can at the tiny holes, the thinning weave. What will be left of it, this nation, when we finally come to our senses?

While we were homeschooling I made each of the children memorize both the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address. I thought it was good for them to commit such treasured prose to mind and heart. Lincoln's words came to mine today. They are haunting and perhaps even prophetic:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure...."

I am not a statesman, nor am I a theologian. I have earned no law degree nor one in sociology. I am simply a woman who loves my God, my family, and my country, and I have lived long enough to see that we are moving farther and farther away from both one nation and one another.

I know a few things with cetainty. The first is that God remains in control. The second, that love works better to heal than hate, and the third, that no one was ever won over to the other side of an argument by harsh words. Isn't it time we started looking at one another as beloved children of God rather than as enemies? Isn't it time we take up needle and thread and start mending?

We won't all agree on every issue. That's life in a fallen world, tragically, but we can extend a hand and an olive branch. We can pray for those with whom we differ. We can ask God to heal our land.

We ARE still one nation under God. We still have blessings untold. We are a fortunate people even with all that seemingly divides us. Isn't it time? Time to... gather together again.

"...we here highly resolve... that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom... and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." -Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863