So, we were able to take our kids to the 4th of July parade in Pitman this year. Pitman is a local town that has that small town feel, complete with a main street and center of town like the good old days. In years past we participated in the parade with the church that we were attending at the time. That church always has a huge float and scores of people to represent the church in the community. Their parade outreach is led by a very godly older couple who have been faithful through the years to make sure that the church has a good representation in the parade.
I will save you the full play by play of our worst experience marching in the parade. Let's just say that it was hotter than Iraq in Pitman and we thought we'd be super smart and park our car somewhere near the route on a side street and then meet up with the church. And let's just pretend for a moment, however hard it may be, that we are both terrible with directions (a reason why we will never win the Amazing Race) and that we got lost walking up and down side street after side street in search of the oasis of our air-conditioned car. Low on water, cranky with heat and sweating like pigs, we both prepared to die. The end was near.
But since I'm typing this to you, you can assume that we eventually found our van (which was probably right nearby the entire time) and made it back to air-conditioned civilization.
Back to the parade.
It struck me that many of the floats and organizations participating in this parade were local churches. And that made me smile. So did the frozen vanilla latte that I picked up at Casa de Coffee, a local coffee shop right around the corner. Good stuff folks, good stuff!
We joined Pitman-dwelling friends of ours on the curb. They view July 4th kind of like most people view Christmas. It's a huge deal. So it was fun to share in their enthusiasm for the day.
It was a hot day, but our kids seemed to be enjoying themselves. One moment that repeated itself over and over again was our two sons leaping to their feet every time a military veteran went by via a car, a float or just walking in a group.
The first time military vets went by we told them to stand up to show respect. Our boys did one better: they both saluted the veterans. This became a ritual. Every time a veteran went by my 10 year old and my 4 year old would stand proudly to their feet and salute! Several of the old GI Joes saluted back to our little guys.
It was a moving moment for my wife and I. Our boys were showing RESPECT to people who have earned it. They understood in that moment what it meant to be American. They understood in that moment what it meant to thank someone for sacrificing so much for us. They understood in that moment what it meant to be rescued from evil by someone else's powerful sacrifice. Biblically speaking, they understood Jesus' definition of love.
Jesus tells us in John 15:18 that "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." This is right after He commands us to love one another. And before He will do this very thing by laying down His perfect sinless life on behalf of a fallen world.
To the boys that day in Pitman, the patriotism-soaked holiday commemorating our nation's birth helped to illuminate the true nature of honor and sacrificial love. And it reminded them that sometimes we need someone bigger, stronger and more powerful to save us.
Later this week when we were reading our portion of C.S. Lewis' Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we came to the chapter where the ever-annoying Eustace has been made into a dragon because of his greed and wickedness. As a dragon, Eustace learns the folly of his ways and repents. Then comes the moment when he attempts to shed his dragon skin. Hard as he may try he cannot remove it permanently. It keeps growing back. Finally, Aslan (the lion who represents Christ in the world of Narnia) helps him out:
"Then the lion said--but I don't know if it spoke--'You will have to let me undress you.' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off...Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off--just as I'd done it myself the other 3 times, only they hadn't hurt--and there it was, lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been..."
The 4th of July and the brave sacrifices made by our founding fathers and the generations of liberty's defenders serve as a reminder that we are in a world at war. My little boys can't defend themselves against Nazis, Commies, or terrorists. They need the protection of brave men and women willing to demonstrate the Biblical definition of the greatest type of love--self-sacrifice. The little boy Eustace was also powerless to turn himself back into a boy without the powerful lion Aslan to help him.
And we are also incapable of shedding the sin into which we were born without the self-sacrifice and love of Jesus. And that's something worth saluting!
