There's a picture in my memory of a Fourth of July some seventeen years ago. My mom snapped it. I suspect it's somewhere in a box of treasured photos that I've yet to place in an album. 

Our Hayden was around eighteen months old. In the picture he's in the bed of my dad's truck with some cousins eating watermelon. He has on his striped red and white (with blue) tshirt. His wavy hair still damp, he's sporting a swim diaper because we'd waded in the creek behind my parent's house.  

The picture encompasses so much of what I think about when I consider things I love about the Fourth of July. It's a day that's set apart to spend time with family; a day that usually involves a barbecue, and when the stars come out, fireworks. 

That's a pretty myopic view in light of the sacrifice generations of men have made in order for us to enjoy the freedoms and comforts we have in the country we live in today. 

We remember the men who have fought that we might prosper and be free. Not only have men put their lives on the line for the people who live in this great country, but our military (including hundreds of thousands whose address is now a graveside) selflessly lived that those in foreign places might gain.

We salute those men as we sing in chorus God Bless America and gratitude bubbles up within us. Our Stars and Stripes waves on highway sides and in yards on our streets and we feel pride. Sometimes too much. 

America runs much deeper than red, white and blue. 

Our ideals aren't what they were one hundred years ago.  They aren't the same as when I was a kid. No matter your political affiliation I'm sure you agree with that. 

Though formed as a nation "under God", we've, as a country, "forsaken the love we had at first". Some have called it progress. Others of us realize the futility , but have become complacent even as our lampstand is losing its glow. 

Pride, ill-conceived progress and division have become our trademark. 

Neither at our nation's beginning nor in its current condition should our celebration be about how great America is. This day we're about to celebrate is about the greatness of the Father of our nation. It's about the opportunity we've been afforded, through its birth and growing pains, to freely share the eternal wealth and good news we have in Christ. 

We'd do well to remember that our pride and gratitude shouldn't be rooted in what we love about our country but about how much love we have for our country, both those in it and those who live outside its bounds.  

Those of us whose God is the Lord have the privilege and responsibility to freely live, but more importantly to freely love. 

We've the stories of many good men and the greatest man to follow after. 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

Matthew 22

We've a world of neighbors.