Article: One Star on the Flag
When I was a student in fifth or sixth grade, our class was preparing for a program that we would perform for our parents. In one part of the program, the American flag was to be brought out, we would recite the pledge of allegiance and someone would sing the national anthem. Apparently our rehearsals were not going as well as our teachers hoped as a bunch of fidgety children waited on the stage for Old Glory to pass by. One teacher sought to correct us and told us to find one star on the flag and focus on it as the honors were given. After one more run through, our teacher commended those that found this new focus, and told us how much more respectful it looked when we payed attention to the flag so well. I don’t know exactly why, but that instruction has stayed with me for four decades! I can still hear it in my mind when I hear the opening strain of the national anthem.
Several years ago my brother, a Marine, was on one of several deployments to the middle east. As with most families of deployed military, we were concerned for his safety and the thought of him being so far from home. One night at a special event as the anthem was being played, I found my star and focused my attention. Thoughts of my brother filled my mind and I began to pray for him and his fellow soldiers. A new kind of patriotic awareness filled my mind as the cost of freedom and the privilege of living in this country grew large.
In John 15:13 Jesus says this, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Life itself is a precious gift worth holding onto and experiencing to the fullest. To lay down one's life for another’s benefit is the ultimate act of love and service. Jesus himself did so as he laid down his sinless life for the sake of sinful humanity on the cross. As a result, we can have forgiveness for sin and a new chance at life. We have the opportunity to say "thank you” to him with our lives every day.
This is what the writer of Hebrews says: "let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes upon Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” We fix our eyes on Jesus, like a star on the flag, and remember the sacrifice he paid for us, the blessed hope of his resurrection, and the promise of his return.
Remember to pray for our military, our leaders, our police and EMS personnel and all of those who lay down their lives for our sake, and give thanks to them and the God who gives us all blessings!