Thirteen Stars and Thirteen Stripes. It was on this day, June 14, 1777, that the Second Continental Congress chose this as the Flag of the United States. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed a Proclamation making this day "National Flag Day." It was also on this day in 1954, that President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Act of Congress which added the phrase "One Nation Under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Eisenhower stated: "From this day forward… millions of… school children will daily proclaim… the dedication of our nation… to the Almighty."

Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.

God is a verb,
not a noun proper or improper.
--- R. Buckminster Fuller, No More Secondhand God, 1963

... from here, there and everywhere

13 A son who is a fool is his father's ruin, and a nagging wife is like a leak that keeps dripping.

Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.

                         Get a move on

     In the Matter of Determination. Abide in Me. --- John 15:4.

     The Spirit of Jesus is put into me by the Atonement, then I have to construct with patience the way of thinking that is exactly in accordance with my Lord. God will not make me think like Jesus, I have to do it myself; I have to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. "Abide in Me"—in intellectual matters, in money matters, in every one of the matters that make human life what it is. It is not a bandbox life.

     Am I preventing God from doing things in my circumstances because I say it will hinder my communion with Him? That is an impertinence. It does not matter what my circumstances are, I can be as sure of abiding in Jesus in them as in a prayer meeting. I have not to change and arrange my circumstances myself. With Our Lord the inner abiding was unsullied; He was at home with God wherever His body was placed. He never chose His own circumstances, but was meek towards His Father's dispensations for Him. Think of the amazing leisure of Our Lord's Life! We keep God at excitement point, there is none of the serenity of the life hid with Christ in God about us.

     Think of the things that take you out of abiding in Christ—'Yes, Lord, just a minute, I have got this to do; Yes, I will abide when once this is finished; when this week is over, it will be all right, I will abide then.' Get a move on; begin to abide now. In the initial stages it is a continual effort until it becomes so much the law of life that you abide in Him unconsciously. Determine to abide in Jesus wherever you are placed.

Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest

Always the same hills
Crowd the horizon,
Remote witness
Of the still scene.

And in the foreground
The tall Cross,
Sombre, untenanted,
Aches for the Body
That is the back in the cradle
Of a maid's arms

R.S. Thomas Selected Poems, 1946-68

          You have ruined things! Take a thread and sew it up!

     BIBLE TEXT / Genesis 3:6–7 / When the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable as a source of wisdom, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, and be ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they perceived that they were naked; and they sewed together fig leaves and made themselves loincloths.

     MIDRASH TEXT / Genesis Rabbah 19, 6 / And they perceived that they were naked. Even the one mitzvah that they had was stripped from them. And they sewed together fig [תְּאֵנָה/t'einah] leaves. Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai said, "This is the leaf that brought grief [תּו̇אֲנָה/to-anah] to the world." Rabbi Yitzḥak said, "You have ruined things! Take a thread and sew it up!"

     CONTEXT / And they, Adam and Eve, perceived that they were naked. The Rabbis were puzzled: Doesn't an unclothed person realize that he is naked? Even a blind person knows that he is naked. What really happened when Adam and Eve opened their eyes? And what is the verse telling us when it says that they perceived that they were naked? This Midrash imagines that even the one mitzvah that they had, not to eat from the tree, was in a figurative sense stripped from them the way clothing would be stripped off a person. It was then that Adam and Eve realized just how "bare" they were, exposed before God as unable to keep the one command that they had.

     They sewed together fig [תְּאֵנָה/t'einah] leaves. Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai (also called Shimon bar Yoḥai) thought of a pun: the word תְּאֵנָה/t'einah, "fig," sounds like another Hebrew word, תּו̇אֲנָה/to-anah, "grief" or "trouble." "This is the leaf that brought grief [תּו̇אֲנָה/to-anah] by their eating from the tree, in disobedience of God, to the world." What it brought to the world, apparently, is death. Rabbi Yitzḥak said, It's as if God said to Adam and Eve, "You have ruined things! Take a thread and sew it up!" The text says that they sewed the fig leaves together themselves. Adam and Eve themselves had to make amends for what they had wrecked by mending their own clothing.

     Most of us have been taught, and therefore assume, that Eve gave Adam an apple. After all, we call the protrusion of the larynx the "Adam's apple," not "Adam's pear" or "Adam's grape." But the Bible text says only that "she [Eve] took of its fruit and ate," never specifying which fruit it was. Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai speculates on the fruit and makes a pun, trying to learn a lesson by connecting the Hebrew words תְּאֵנָה/t'einah, "fig,"תּוֹאֲנָה/to-anah, "grief," and עֲלֵה תְאֵנָה/alei t'einah, "fig leaves." (In reality, the first and third words are from the same root; the second from a different root.) Rabbi Shimon is saying that the remedy has to fit the problem; since the sin was committed with the תְּאֵנָה/t'einah, "fig," which caused grief (תּו̇אֲנָה/to-anah)—that is, Adam and Eve's sudden knowledge that they were naked—then the remedy must somehow fit. And it does with עֲלֵה תְאֵנָה/alei t'einah, "fig leaves." The punishment fits the crime, linguistically and, more important, philosophically.

Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. Searching for Meaning in Midrash: Lessons for Everyday Living Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.

     My meditation of him shall be sweet. --- Psalm 104:34 KJV

     Will the eagle that has soared in the open sky, that has gazed into the sun, endure to dwell in the dark cavern of the bat? Sermons To The Spiritual Man If the vision of God were glorious to our minds, wouldn't a return to the things of earth be reluctant?

     It should, therefore, be a diligent practice to meditate on God and divine things. But the inclination is greatly lacking. The avocations of our daily lives do not require the whole of our mental energy and reflection. Time should be set apart and used for this sole purpose. It is startling to consider how much of our lives pass without any thought of God, without any recognition of his presence and his character. And how much of [life] might be spent in sweet and profitable meditation. Wouldn't thought on God steal through and suffuse all our other thinking, as sunset does the evening sky, giving a pure and saintly hue to all our feelings and pervading our entire experience?

     It is still not so easy and pleasant as it ought to be to walk with God. It is still too difficult for us to be happy in heaven. A foundation for heaven in our own minds is required in order to enjoy the heaven that is on high. That rational being who does not practice the meditations and enjoy the experiences of heaven will not be at home there and, therefore, will not go there. Is it supposable that a soul who never here on earth contemplated the divine character with pleasure will see that character in eternity, in peace and joy? Is it supposable that a human spirit filled with self-seeking and worldliness, destitute of devout and adoring meditations, will be taken among seraphim and cherubim when taken out of time? We will know then what we really love and what we really loathe. For whatever we think of with most relish here in time we will think of with most relish in eternity. Those who love to think of wealth and fame and sensual pleasure will think of wealth and fame and sensual pleasure in eternity. But those who, in any degree, love to think of God and Christ will think of God and Christ in eternity—where all such thought is music and peace and rest.

     If our meditation on God is sweet here, it will be sweeter in eternity. And then our blessedness will be certain and secure, for no spirit can be made unblessed in any part of God's vast dominions, if it really finds joy in the contemplation of the ever-present God.
--- William G. T. Shedd

Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

     3. God's Promises for the Future

     Though His people may turn away from Him, God will not abandon them, even though He disciplines them, for He is true to His covenant and His promises. "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim. 2:13, NKJV).

     God pleads with His people to return to Him and forsake the sins that were causing their downfall (Hosea 14:1). He had already told them to plow up their hard hearts and seek the Lord (10:12) and to turn to God for mercy (12:6), but now He talks to them like little children and tells them just what to do. The Lord gives them promises to encourage them to repent.

     He will receive us (Hosea 14:2–3). God had every reason to reject His sinful people, but He chose to offer them forgiveness. Instead of bringing sacrifices, they needed to bring sincere words of repentance and ask God for His gracious forgiveness. "For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise" (Ps. 51:16–17, NKJV).

     He will restore us (Hosea 14:4). God restores the penitent to spiritual health and heals their backsliding (Jer. 14:7). When a person collapses with sickness, it's usually the result of a process that's been working in the body for weeks or months. First an infection gets into the system and begins to grow. The person experiences weariness and loss of appetite, then weakness, and then the collapse occurs. When sin gets into the inner person and isn't dealt with, it acts like an insidious infection: it grows quietly; it brings loss of spiritual appetite; it creates weariness and weakness; then comes the collapse.

     For example, when Peter denied his Lord three times, that sin didn't suddenly appear; it was the result of gradual spiritual deterioration. The denial began with Peter's pride, when he told the Lord he would never forsake Him and would even die for Him. The next stage was sleeping when he should have been praying, and then fighting when he should have put away his sword. Peter should have left the scene ("I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad" [Matt. 26:31; Zech. 13:7]); but instead, he followed to see what would happen and walked right into temptation.

     When we confess our sins to the Lord, He forgives us and the "germs of sin" are cleansed away (1 John 1:9) but, as with physical sickness, often there's a period of recuperation when we get back our strength and our appetite for spiritual food. "I will love them freely" describes that period, when we're back in fellowship with the Lord and enjoying His presence. We see the smile of His face, for His anger is turned away.

     He will revive us (Hosea 14:5–8). Hosea pictures the restoration of the penitent as the emergence of new life in a dry field on which the refreshing dew has fallen. (Biblical images must be studied carefully and identified accurately, for the same image may be used with different meanings in different contexts. The dew is a case in point. In Hosea 6:4, it represents the fleeting religious devotion of the hypocrites, while in 13:3, it symbolizes the transiency of the people who think they're so secure. Both Jesus and Satan are represented by the lion (Rev. 5:5; 1 Peter 5:8).) In the summer and early autumn in the Holy Land, the dew is very heavy and greatly appreciated (Ps. 133:3; Isa. 18:4). That's what the word "revive" means: to bring new life. The rich vegetation appears, producing beauty and fragrance where once the farmer saw only ugliness and emptiness. The fallow ground becomes a fruitful garden!

     The closing verse presents us with only two alternatives: rebel against the Lord and continue to stumble, or return to the Lord and walk securely in His ways. The first choice is foolish; the second choice is wise.

     "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life" (Deut. 30:19).

W. W. Wiersbe, (1996) Be Amazed (Minor Prophets): Restoring an Attitude of Wonder and Worship (The BE Series Commentary)