Thursday, June 13, 2024

Tomorrow is Flag Day

Tomorrow is Flag Day. Many people helped make June 14 the official national observance. In 1916 President Wilson issued a proclamation to observe National Flag Day on June 14 and President Coolidge did the same in 1927. It wasn't until August 3, 1949 that Congress approved the observance of National Flag Day. It was President Harry Truman who signed it into law.

The American flag brightly proclaims the red, white and blue. According to the Veterans Affairs, the colors of the flag represent values of the United States of America. Red symbolizes hardiness and valor. White symbolizes purity and innocence. Blue symbolizes vigilance, perseverance and justice. The 13 stripes represent the original Colonies and the 50 stars represent the 50 states of the Union. 

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.'" (Acts 17:24-28 NIV). 

When I was in elementary school we started the day by facing the flag and repeating the Pledge of Allegiance with our right hands over our hearts. For years, since the 1930s, there have been legal challenges to the Pledge of Allegiance by Jehovah's Witnesses, and by atheists who objected to school policies requiring students to swear an oath to the flag, "Under God".

To me the flag represents honor to our country, under God. I'm thankful for our freedoms, especially our freedom of religion. I will raise our flag under God for the liberty and justice it provides.

God, we seek you and rejoice that You invite us to have a relationship with You. Thank You for the ability to live in You and have our being. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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