My eight-year-old granddaughter is here this morning. She has decorated our house with flags and written Happy Birthday U.S.A in sidewalk chalk all over the front porch. Our home looks very patriotic.

I love this nation of ours. It is my home, my country, and my native land. I appreciate all the blessings that come to me because I am an American and I am grateful for all those who made great sacrifices for this nation. God bless America! However, I always want to put an asterisk after I say that and explain that like the apostle Paul my citizenship is in heaven. (Philippians 3:20

I found the lyrics to a song in a book by Marcus Borg called, “The Heart of Christianity” that I found appropriate for today. The song is titled, “This Is My Song,” and is sung to the tune “Finlandia.”

“This is my song, O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for lands afar and mine,

This is my home, the country where my heart is;

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;

But other hearts in other lands are beating

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean

And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;

But other lands have sunlight, too, and clover,

And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.

O hear my song, O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for their land and for mine.”

My Fourth of July prayer is that there will be peace on earth.