Our Humanity Expressed in our Declaration of Independence and the 'Our Father.'

   “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Self-evident truths, as in everyone knows these universal truths.  All men meaning to represent all of mankind, not just men.  Created by their Creator to indicate where rights come from.  And life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are to encapsulate most, if not all, rights, but in proper order.

   This was radical.  No country was setup this way.  That is why we were called the American Experiment.  A country founded upon the rights of the people and not the rights of the powerful.  Truly radical.  And Jesus was radical.  Not only did He see the humanity in everyone, but He called everyone to common humanity under their Creator.  And not just a person under God, but a son or daughter when He gave us the Our Father.

   And while the founders of our country had their problems, our Jesus did not.  He was sinless and saw everyone as His brother or sister.  Calling out those that knew better and showing great compassion to those that did not.  And while uniting our country is something greatly to be desired, if we can unite the family of God as brothers and sisters, our country will be united as a consequence.

   There is so much hurt and disagreement in our country.  And we can continue the hurt by fighting with those we disagree, or we can sympathize with them and unite our humanity, our eternal family.  We must see that our disagreements come from holding the same self-evident truths, but just disagreeing with how to best accomplish them.  When we have common ground it is so much easier to discuss with others the issues we are seeing.

   Our Father does not want His children divided.  So much so that if you do not forgive others, you are not forgiven.  Why would The Father let in a child that kicks His other children out of the house, especially one that He has already forgiven and brought back into the family?  I think of the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  The older son does not join the celebration.  He is rejecting his brother and it keeps him from celebrating with the family.  Are we doing the same?

   Jesus, You were a perfect Child of the Father and You did not reject us, even though our sins led You to death on the Cross.  Help us to be true children of God and forgive our brothers and sisters as You forgave us on the Cross.  Amen.