God Shines Through Inauguration

Sam Hamstra | Jan 20, 2009

If you witnessed the inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th president, either in person or through the television, you are mostlikely proud to be an American. We live in a country where the peaceful transition of power is expected, and where an outgoing and an incoming president embrace one another with sincere affection. We live in a country with meaningful traditions which link us to the past while we enter the future. We live in a country where people of color - who once were not even considered a people - can step to the most prominent platform in the world and be welcomed by over one million people from countless tribes and nations.

If you are follower of Jesus who witnessed the inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th president, you are most-likely encouraged in your faith. Critics have been forecasting gloom for Christ and His Church in this country. We have  been, and continue to be told that we live in a post-Christian society that has little room for the Christian faith, and that the space we will have in the future is but a corner in the room. Those words of gloom seemed pretty accurate this past Christmas season when, you may remember, some folk set up displays, denouncing the Christian faith, right beside nativity scenes. 

Yet, today, on this special day in American history, God could not be silenced. Did you notice that? Just hours before the Inauguration, President and Mrs. Obama attended a mid-morning prayer service at a Christian church while, in the meantime, television commentators described the Christian faith of the nation's new first couple. Before the ceremony began, a choir from San Francisco (if that isn't an irony sang "God Bless America" and, during the ceremony, Aretha Franklin reminded us, in "Let Freedom Ring," that God is the source of freedom. The Inauguration Ceremony began and ended with prayers by Christian pastors who boldly called on the name of the Lord to bless our new president, his family, and our nation. While taking his oath to offfice, the then President-elect Obama rested his left hand upon a Bible - the very one used by Abraham Lincoln for that purpose - as it was held by his wife, Michelle Obama. And don't let this go unnoticed: we witnessed over a million people, packed into a relatively small area, reflecting the very Spirit of Christ through their interactions with one another. Any visitor from another country who observed today's events in Washington, D.C. would conclude that America still reflects its Judaeo-Christian heritage.

Only God knows what tomorrow holds for us and our nation, but today was a good day to be an American and a good day to be a Christian in America.

Comments

becky said:

Pastor Sam-
All I can say to that is
AMEN!
And your writings to decribe this is absolutely perfect!

And as long as I have ya-

I will be thinking of you tomorrow GRANDPA!!!

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