Happy Birthday Eve

Daily Gratitude Year 13 - Day 184: Today, I am grateful for another "Happy Birthday Eve." 

It is the 3rd of July on the eve of our country's 249th Birthday.

What a miraculous thing it truly is! I've been digging into our family history and the Bess clan was in the thick of the Revolution. My 5th and 6th Great Grandfathers with other family members, neighbors, and friends had a front row seat in Lincolnton, N.C. 

I cannot imagine what it was like. Truly. Ramsour's Mill and the Battle at King's Mountain were their neighborhoods. Their fierce courage humbles me. They were defending their homes and the farms and communities they built. Great Grandpa Jerge "Boston" Sebastian Bosch/Best/Bess came at 14 from Germany alone and with nothing. 

His son, my Great Grandpa Peter, was 20 years old in 1776. Imagine the passion of youth combined with the reality that life under the crown was not getting better. Everything was on the line. They defended their homes, their lands, and they forged a new country from many nations, languages, and churches. They did it together. They gave their all and sometimes their lives. Both of them lived to be old men. Imagine the tales they could tell. 

This quote struck me today:

 "I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration." - John Adams, July 3, 1776

The words rang true! Toil, blood, and treasure were sacrificed for a dream of a place where men could live, speak, and worship in freedom. There was a moral compass and magnificent courage. This war voucher is a small, tangible part of the story. 

"Greater love than this has no man, than to bestow his life for his friends." -John 15:13

When times got tough, they pulled together. They took care of each other. They stood firm. They carried each other, literally at times when one was wounded and too weak to walk. Often, the wounded would encourage brothers in arms to save themselves to continue the fight. They cared for the widows and orphans. 

The 13 Colonies had different ideas on what this new country would look like, but they argued, debated, and eventually hammered out "The Declaration of Independence."  They were not perfect, but they hammered out something beautiful. I love that they actually use the phrase "in order to form a more perfect union." There was arrogance... but humility, too. They came together and we live with the fruits of their blood, sweat, loss, and tears. 

This 249th Birthday, let us seek to be "more perfect" and more forgiving, too. 

Today, I am grateful for another "Happy Birthday Eve."