God Done Shed His Grace On Thee

you should probably press play on this before you scroll through the rest of this post...for this was the theme song of our fourth. {and quite possibly for all of the fourth of julys ever until the end of time, if i have my way.} it plays in the most patriotic of sandlot scenes, and my friend chris played it while we rode bikes down to the park for fireworks {and i cried because, come on--riding bikes with friends after a day of pool time and ice cream--that's like the best day for an eight year old and that's really how i want to measure all my days, don't you?} he played it again during the firework show and you can bet i cried that time too, but so did cheryl, so i didn't feel nearly as silly in that moment as i did while wiping tears from my face with one hand and holding the handlebars with the other.

in fact, i am a little teary-eyed as i listen to the song and write this...words i've heard {and sung in dozens of choirs over the years} seem a million times more moving with his passion and soul behind them. o beautiful for heroes proved, in liberating strife, who more than self, their country loved and mercy more than life. i mean, well done, ray...well done.