decade

{via pintrest}

i was 10. telling everyone "almost 11." almost but not quite.

red and blue and green and yellow dress. gap-toothed smile and dark bobbed hair.

flash of a camera bulb. school pictures taken. sister comes next.

little-shoes skipping back to mama, asking why the tears and why was everyone so sad.

television flashes. fire. smoke billowing like something from a movie i wasn't allowed to watch. screaming. people jumping, life gone in a leap.

first one plane. then another. then comes collapse. smoke and screams mingling in horror that flowed like a rapid-rising river from sea to shining sea.

fear. so much fear.

mama, sister, and i at the tea shop. eating my favourite soup in a bread bowl, with big ice cream cones and jelly beans afterwards. mama saying "it might be the last."

phone calls to daddy on her old cell phone.

i love you.

what do we do?

praying. 

God knows.

so many heroes lived and died that day. first responders ran in while hundreds ran out. 

and three fathers shed their hero blood to spare their cities with cries of 

let's roll. 

today marks 10 years. 

that little girl is now 20. the dress has turned to jeans and the teeth have all come back to make a complete smile.

Photo by DramaticElegance
wax memorial in Madame Tussad's, NYC

but the world is now so different. my country is different. 

we have a war now. we have pain now. we have so much hate now. 

turbans and hijabs spell terror to ignorance. be watchful, yes. but hate not. 

it's hard for me to wrap my mind around these children. innocent-eyed angels that don't know. the little ones who wonder why we stand and sing and weep and remember. 

honouring rows and rows of our own heroes today. men and women in our church with medals pinned by our pastor. the colour guard and standing ovations. hands over hearts and red-white-blue at the front. 

the words in bronze hang from my husband, my father-in-law, my mother-in-law. the soliders. the cops. the EMTS. the firemen. they all stood and received the same words of power. 

to honour and respect those who serve and protect.

evil is real. He is stronger. 

the USA still stands. the colours still wave. 

we must affirm Truth. Justice. Love. 

9-11-2001. 

we still remember. 

we still honour. 

we still stand.

You are stronger / You are stronger / Sin is broken / You have saved me. / It is written / Christ is risen / Jesus, You are Lord of all ~Stronger, Hillsong

{linking with hear it on sunday and playdates with God}

Freedom

Do you hear the people sing? / Singing a song of angry men? / It is the music of a people / Who will not be slaves again! / When the beating of your heart / Echoes the beating of the drums. / There is a life about to start /When tomorrow comes! ~When Tomorrow Comes, Les Miserables

4th of July. 

To the rest of the world, this is just another day on the calender. No different than the 9th of March or the 24th of October. 

But to the United States of America, this day is monumental. 

Today we declared our freedom. 

Today we stood against the background of red, white, and blue, and took our place among the nations. 

We stepped from black and white to colour...from darkness to light...from candlelight to sparklers. 

We became the United States of America. 

But now, we are starting to fall back into our own habits. 

We are slipping from the light of freedom to the darkness of our own slavery.

We are not under the dominion of the King of England anymore...but nor are we allowing ourselves to be under the reign of the ultimate Holy King. We have switched from rebelling against the laws of man to pushing our backs against the laws of God. 

We have fallen so in love with freedom that we have fallen out of love with the One who held our hands and guided us here in the first place. 

If we try to erase God from every cornerstone of our nation's foundation, we will grind the stones to nothing and leave us in a pile of rubble.

Lives were lost and the streams ran red with blood to make our country free.

One life was lost and His heart was pierced to make our souls free.

We must never separate the two. 

If these two threads untangle, our freedom will unravel. 

"One nation under God." 

Photo by Abigail Dahl
PinkStudios Photography

In Him, we are free. 

Without Him, we are lost. 

So tonight,as lemonade mingles with the ice cubes in our glasses and watermelon juice drips down your chin...

...as the anthem plays and the star-spangled banner flutters in the breeze... 

...as sparklers flash and fireworks explode against the backdrop of the midnight sky...

...never forget the ones who died to give us this freedom, and never forget the One who died to give us the ultimate freedom.

Embrace your freedom,

but cling to Him.  

Do you hear the people sing? / Lost in the valley of the night / It is the music of a people who are climbing to the light / For the wretched of the earth there is a flame that never dies / Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise. / They will live again in freedom in the garden of the Lord. / They will walk behind the plough-share / they will put away the sword. / The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward...~Epilogue, Les Miserables 

(I did a guest post today over at The Cupcake Dictionary, which you can read here.)