stars and stripes [aren't] forever

Studying colonial American history, I was always intrigued by the names given to some of the pilgrims' children. One name that stood out especially was "Peregrine," which literally means "foreign, alien; wandering, traveling." It's not an accident that the same people who left everything they had known and established for a chance at freedom would christen a child this way.

Looking back on our nation's history, with all the benefits of that 20/20 hindsight thing, we forget the uncertainty and doubt that must've loomed heavy on the minds of all who led the way at each critical juncture. Happily as it may have turned out for us, the decisions made by pilgrim families was not easy. They made the choice to be strangers in search of a better country. And they were painfully aware of the difficulties and risks that their choice brought.

Not too long after elementary school and all of those lessons about the Mayflower, the first Thanksgiving, and Squanto and the corn-growing, I began to cultivate a new interest in pilgrims and wanderers, based on a passage from Hebrews 11. After relating the faith of some of the earliest followers of Yahweh, the author says,

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

This is not an isolated recounting of this theme in Scripture. One exciting thing about studying the Old Testament in Sunday School has been watching this pilgrim theme unfold again. God's people are frequently wanderers in a foreign land, living in a way that declares that they seek a homeland. From Genesis to Revelation, His people are strangers and pilgrims, ambassadors for the King of that heavenly country.

So as we celebrate patriotism today on the Fourth of July, let's take a bit to reflect on how our experience here is just a faint reflection of our love for the better country we so desire.

Would my life be worthy of a name like "Peregrine"? Do I declare plainly that I am not at home here? Do I sing the Lord's song in this foreign land?

Do I think of heaven the same way that the psalmist remembered his home country in Psalm 137?

By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

How shall we sing the LORD's song
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy!

Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, "Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!"
O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!