Fourscore and More Than Seven Years Ago...
Over spring break, the ABC Class of 2012 visited Washington, DC. We took a nighttime tour of the memorials, and one of the stops was the Lincoln Memorial. It is an impressive monument with Abraham Lincoln's giant statue flanked on either side with marble carvings of some of Lincoln's most famous speeches, including the Gettysburg address. Lincoln delivered this speech to dedicate the Gettysburg battlefield as a graveyard for fallen soldiers.
That night in DC, as I meandered around the memorial, I found myself standing before the large, marble transcript of the Gettysburg address. The words I read stopped me in my tracks.
"It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract."
I marveled at the magnitude of that statement and the great truth at the heart of it. The giving of life irrevocably imparts great value.
On Nov 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln spoke these words about a physical place where human lives were lost. They were true long before that. Christ gave his life for us and through that process, He made us holy and irreproachable (Colossians 1:22). He gave us a value so great that it is unattainable. We have no power, as Lincoln said to dedicate, consecrate, or hallow, but the because of the love of God, a plan was put in place – a plan that gives me value. Christ made me matter.
Over spring break, I got a glimpse of the enormity of the love of God. The only response fitting for such a gift can be found in Psalm 86:12, “I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And I will glorify Your name forevermore”.
