The Beginning

John 1:1-2 says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God."

Since the 4th of July just passed, I was thinking about the beginning of our country and where it all started. What was the basis of our country in the beginning? And how did we stray so far? I went to the book of John where he talks about the beginning, and he says that the "Word" was with God. "Word" was meant to represent Jesus. Even though Jesus wasn't born until thousands of years later in the Gospels, He was always with God, from creation and so on. He will always be our beginning.
Not only is God the beginning of our whole world, He was also the sole reason that America even started. I watched a movie called Monumental, and it talked about how the pilgrim's real reason for coming to America was not only because of a harsh king, but because they wanted to be able to worship Jesus on their own terms, read and study the Bible on their own (which wasn't a privilege they had), and to build their own nation on His Word with His morals and values. There's a monument called "National Monument to the Forefathers" in Plymouth, Massachusetts that's actually one of the biggest monuments in the nation. The pilgrims built it to remind our country of it's original foundation. The biggest statue on it literally says "Faith", representing the biggest part of the beginning of our nation. Around it there are words like law, mercy, justice, education, etc, but "Faith" was meant to be the most noticeable and important part. Is it a shock that modern governments built a community around it to hide it? Faith isn't anymore, but really should be, the basis of our country. That's at least how it was supposed to be.
Moving on to how we can apply this to our lives, Jesus should be the beginning of everything we do. He, after all, is the reason we are alive. When tough decisions have to be made, we need to run to Jesus to make the best absolute choices in our lives. When something tragic happens, we need to run to Jesus to give us strength, mercy, hope, and love. When our days are bright, we still need to run to Jesus because He should be the start of everything we say, think, and do. It's not a shock to me that Jesus was the reason our country exists. He was, is, and always will be our beginning, and He needs to still be in our lives as well. He is sovereign, and He loves us incredibly.
I hope everyone had a happy Independence Day!
- Sophia Light