July 4: How God's mercy brought America through hard times

By Ada Brownell

A phone call from our daughter. “Better turn on the news.”

 A click, and I sank into a recliner. Flames shot from the World Trade Center and people jumped out windows. Then a large aircraft plowed into the remaining twin tower, exploding top floors and setting the remainder of the crumbling skyscraper on fire. A short time later, a plane made a direct hit on our Pentagon, and another headed for the White House.

We were at war. Our soldiers still fight the tentacles of terrorism trying to strangle the last breath of freedom from our nation and the world.

What a joy liberty has been in the decades I’ve lived! No bombs lighting the sky in the distance or jarring my bed at night. During my childhood I trembled during World War II when the town siren screamed, “Blackout.” But sirens stopped, our homeland was safe despite carnage at Pearl Harbor, and Americans lived free.

 Yes, war bruised our nation. I remember my sister’s scream when she received the call revealing her fiancé was killed in World War II. We feared Russia during the cold war, and during the Bay of Pigs crisis we wondered if atomic bombs would level our nation before morning. We’re still burying our young killed on battlefields abroad.

Throughout history, America went to its knees for God’s help. They cried out to the Lord during the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican-Indian War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq; and interventions in Granada, Panama, Bosnia. I’m thankful for those who fought, gave their lives or were maimed.

Liberty prevails, and I believe it’s partly due to our Judeo-Christian heritage that teaches loving God and others.

 Another reason we have been blessed is our nation’s support of Israel.  "And I will bless those that bless you and curse the one who curses you,” God said of Israel (Genesis 12:1-3). Zechariah 2:8 speaks about God rising against the nations that plundered Israel – “for whoever touches you touches the apple of my eye." 

If we turn from God, it even affects the environment: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery…. Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away, the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying” (Hosea 4:1-3).

And the promise for obedience: “Then all the nations will call you blessed for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty (Malachi 3:6-12).

Even with continued war and our nation divided by different agendas, we are free and blessed. The church still prays for our leaders and our country, and I thank God for His mercy and ask for more.

Ada Brownell, a free lance writer and author of ten  books, is a retired reporter for The Pueblo Chieftain.