THE LAST RIVER MILE

Elaine (my wife) and I had planned to travel as much as possible upon retirement. In the last seven years we have more than reached our goal. All our journeys have taken us to the rich variety that is the United States. We have seen Big Sky country in the west, witnessing and crossing the Grand Tetons. We have viewed the grandeur of Saguaro National Park and the desert southwest. We have spent time by the bright green waters of the Emerald Coast along the Gulf of Mexico. We have enjoyed San Antonio’s River Walk and the old Spanish mission region of Texas. We have seen the utter glory of upstate New York and New England in Autumn. We have walked along the shores of three Great Lakes, and relaxed in the beauty of Door County, Wisconsin. We have experienced the magnificence of Alaska; the last frontier. And we just returned from another stellar trip to the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

This nation is a magnificently varied tapestry of different topographies, landscapes, and natural wonders. This is much like the people of our great land. In our travels we have experienced a magnificent mix of people who are varied in how the live, how they believe, how they think, how they work, how they play, how they love, and how they experience life in the United States of America. They are as richly different as the land we share.

We are a nation designed for this; for the freedom to be as different from one another as the Smoky Mountains are from the Great Salt Lake. This is where liberty and justice exists for literally all of us, from the New England lobster fisherpersons to rural California farmworkers. We are defined by endless variety.

Following Jesus is not, has never been, and never should be the official, mandated faith of the USA. Freedom of religion is at our very core, for good reason. But for those of us who do follow Jesus, this country’s values, even if still aspirational, feed into a core of something we believe…that God’s love is for all. God’s love in Christ is not deserved only by a chosen few, it is not earned only by those who look and act a certain way, and it is not reserved for a select group of those who are favored. As this nation strives to afford life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all, we are under the mandate to offer the unrestricted, saving, transforming love of God made known in Jesus to all.

We have a lot of work to do in the United States of America. We are still working on putting into practice what we put on paper in 1776. But we can celebrate this day the gloriously messy crazy quilt that is us. Woody Guthrie was right – this land was made for you and me, and ALL OF US!

Happy 250th, USA! I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.