“My Country ‘Tis of Thee Sweet Land of Liberty of Thee I Sing”
(Hymn, Samuel Francis Smith)
Holy God, I write from my little corner of the world, my little neighborhood of my native land, the United States, celebrating its birth. You have heard the fun, fireworks explosions from sea to shining sea. You have heard us sing our proud anthems that assume your holiest blessing. You have heard our gratitude for purple mountains’ majesty and amber waves of grain, for liberty and patriot’s dreams. But we are not alone, O God.
Holy God, you called Abraham out of Ur to become a people with a promised land to be their home. Good and ill were done to make it so. Both good and ill are ongoing the world over. Nations have been crafted and birthed and come into being in every imaginable way.
Each people celebrate their exceptionalism, their origin’s story, their unique relationship with you, the God of all creation. We all have our myths, our heroes, our struggles, our obstacles, our pride and our fear, our walls visible and invisible, our victories and losses real and imagined.
God, from each in our own land, for our blessings may we be humble, for our opportunities may we be grateful, for our sins may we be forgiven, for our brokenness may we be healed, for our future may we be inspired and guided.
God, for all peoples yearning for the fullness of life, hope and opportunity we pray.
This Is My Song
(Hymn, Lloyd Stone, Vs.2)
“My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean, and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine; but other lands have sunlight too, and clover, and skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations, a song of peace for their land and for mine.”
Amen
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