The Rock at Plymouth

This is the "Reason and Prayer" I will be sharing this evening at our family Thanksgiving dinner.  May we all return to the Rock at Plymouth. Jer Dunlap

The Rock at Plymouth

 A Reason and Prayer

According to history and legend, they first placed their foot there. They, of course, are the Pilgrims who made the daunting voyage in rickety ships of wood and tar, crossing the vast ocean for one reason - liberty. Many who began the voyage fought sickness and freezing temperatures. Sixty-five days after their voyage began; the 110 individuals finally heard the words, "land ho."

 They arrived at a place rough and wild that promised them a new start, a new way in which to conduct their lives. This was their New World. We can only imagine as they stepped onto that now infamous landing spot, they simply sighed or wept reflecting that the deep price paid during the voyage was now deeply worth those first few steps. Freedom had been found.

So here we find ourselves today, celebrating a national holiday first commissioned by President Abraham Lincoln. The same President who sometime later, dedicating a National Cemetery for the lost of war would say, "A government of the people, by the people, for the people shall never perish." While freedom today may appear to be slipping through our fingers, may we be quick to remember that the rights we have, the liberty we proclaim, derive from the ferocious Hands of God.

Those Pilgrims understood this best. For the voyage they had made, that first winter in the New World that cost them so much in terms of human life, was all for one simple reason - freedom, religious freedom. So today, we offer this prayer:

Oh God our Help in ages past, our Hope for years to come,
We bow our heads today not for simple a blessing of a feast,
We bow our heads today for a magnificent blessing - of freedom.

In these times Lord, may we focus on the simple gifts.
While the ocean of the times may seem large and our boat so small,
we know that the same God of the Pilgrims is the same God who guides our ship today.

Today as we pray, may we return to that Rock at Plymouth, remembering that all it takes for freedom to prevail, is the work of a few.

And may the Rock at Plymouth symbolize a greater Rock Whose steps have gone before us. From Him, all freedom is given. And to Him, all Thanksgiving is due.

Now like never before, our Nation that began at Plymouth needs You the Rock of Ages. Return to us that which we have forgotten, that which we shall never again take for granted - freedom. And if called upon, "be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!"*

Amen 

 

*"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" by Julia Ward Howe

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