Happy 250th, America!

John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, on July 3, 1776, expressing his hopes for the new nation's annual day of celebration:

"It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."

Let us fulfill John Adam’s wishes! No doubt, 250 years is well-worth a massive national celebration!

But as we celebrate this great day, let us not forget that this remarkable anniversary was brought to us, in part, by thousands upon thousands of men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives, treasure, and their pledge of sacred honor, so that we might live in freedom, liberty, and enjoy a prosperity of a kind previously unknown in human history.

The National Cemetery in Gettysburg

The Meuse-Argonne Cemetery in France (WW1).

This was far and away the biggest battle ever fought by American soldiers in its 250 year history, but is sadly all but forgotten

The American Cemetery at Normandy, France

Arlington National Cemetery

As Ronald Reagan warned us,

Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again.

May our gracious God preserve what we are so prone to lose . . . I won’t live to see the 300th, but I hope and pray that my grandchildren do!