Home Sweet Home
“At home with the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 5:8
Today we are celebrating our nation’s 246th birthday. For many (mine included!) July 4th is a day for family, food, and fireworks. It is also a day of remembering our forefathers’ vision, courage, and sacrifice as they signed their names to the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.
Throughout scripture, God called for annual times of celebration in the nation of Israel and the lives of His people. Holy days, or holidays, were built into the rhythm of Israel’s annual calendar. Every celebration was a time for remembering who God is and for celebrating what He had done with His past deliverances.
Yesterday our church held its annual Christianity in America festival and celebrated July 4th by remembering our country’s past, honoring our military veterans, and worshiping God. To be clear, there were no politics involved, but there was a lot of patriotism. We sang several patriotic hymns that included:
My Country ‘Tis of Thee
America the Beautiful
God Bless America
The Star-Spangled Banner and
God of Our Fathers
God Bless America was actually sung in both our Sunday morning and Sunday evening worship services. I cried both times as we sang:
God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above
From the mountains to the prairies
To the oceans white with foam
God bless America, my home sweet home
The great American singer Kate Smith made God Bless America famous, but the hymn’s lyrics were written by a young Jewish immigrant from Russia who never got over his gratitude for his new home. Irving Berlin wrote the initial lyrics in 1918 as a young American soldier serving in the Great War, but never published them. In 1938 with World War II brewing in Europe, Kate Smith sang God Bless America for the first time on her weekly radio program. The song became an overnight hit and a prayer for a nation on the brink of war.
In a 1940 interview Irving Berlin said he wanted a song that brought Americans together, not set Americans apart. “It’s not a patriotic song, but an expression of gratitude for what this country has done for its citizens, of what home really means,” he said.
America wasn’t the country of Berlin’s birth; but it was his home, and he was grateful.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the meaning of home lately. Perhaps it’s because our youngest son Daniel and his wife Olivia arrived yesterday to begin moving into their newly purchased home. They are moving cross-country from New York to Alabama, two very different places and in some ways, two very different cultures. Yet, we are still the United States of America and they are home.
I’ve also been thinking a lot about James Bruce. As much as we miss him, Bruce and I know that James Bruce is truly and forever home where he belongs.
Matt Papa’s hymn Almost Home has become one of our favorite hymns. Each time we play it, there is such comfort in knowing that James Bruce is not almost home, but truly home.
Don’t drop a single anchor
We’re almost home
Through every toil and danger
We’re almost home
How many pilgrim saints have before us gone?
No stopping now
We’re almost home
That promised land is callin’
We’re almost home
And not a tear shall fall then
We’re almost home
Make ready now your souls for that kingdom come
No turning back
We’re almost home
Almost home, we're almost home
So press on toward that blessed shore
Oh, praise the Lord, wе're almost home
All of us who are in Christ are elect exiles (1 Peter 1:1), aliens and strangers here on earth, those looking for a better country not their own (Hebrew 11:16). God has prepared a place for us far better than any home or country that we can imagine here. (John 14:2-3). And one day like James Bruce we will be home forever.
Home, sweet home!