Nell MohneyMy favorite celebration of our nation’s birthday is not some patriotic event or even a family outing. It happened outside the United States; I was attending a World Conference of Christian Youth in Oslo, Norway.
Though I was one of 18 Methodist delegates from the United States, I knew none of the others. The conference began July 3, and I was delighted to have a tall young man, Ralph Mohney from Tennessee, invite me to dinner with him on July 4.
In retrospect, I realize that, though inadvertent, that dinner was the moment when we began to move from loving and relating in peace to people of the entire world to a much more personal basis. Ralph told me we would be joining his friend, Jim Wilder, and his wife, Louise, that evening. Jim was working on his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh and would be attending the conference for a few days. It was the beginning of a great couple friendship, and Jim was in our wedding the following year.
One reason celebrating a national holiday in a foreign country is so meaningful is that we see more clearly some attributes that we often take for granted. For example, the memory of that long-ago celebration is my favorite, not only because it was my first date with Ralph, but also because I gave thanks for our country, for a stable government (somewhat) and really good ice cream. That evening was truly a defining moment in my life.
Also, I find myself often singing the third stanza of “America the Beautiful”: