A President's Day Treat

I just finished reading 1776 by David McCullough. If you don't understand God's work of Providence, then I would suggest reading this book. The confluence of people, events, and timing is amazingly displayed in McCullough's book.

I don't mean 1776 is a religious version of the American Revolutionary War, but what you do see in the pages of this narrative is that events outside the control of the individuals shaped the very outcome of the War. For example, Washington's retreat from Brooklyn was successful only because the British Navy didn't have a favorable wind to tack up river and thereby cut off the Continental Army's retreat. Or the fact that General Lee, second in command of the American Army, was captured by the British while eating breakfast freeing up Washington to eventually make his bold move on Trenton.

By every account the Continental Army should not have prevailed, and we should still be British subjects. The British were better equiped, more powerful, and commanded the seas, yet America came out the victor and won her independence. You definitely get a sense that it was only by the providence of God that America eventually won the war. I'm not implying that America is the new promised land or anything like that. But what I am suggesting is that all of history is God's History. The American's didn't win because of Washington's perseverance, as McCullough concludes, America won because of God's providence in Washington being in that time and in that place. As the Psalmist wrote, "The steps of a man are established by the LORD"(Ps. 37:23), that is something you can't really forget as you read 1776.