My family and I had a wonderful time celebrating the independence of our great nation.  This past spring we were able to visit the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, when we attended my daughters college graduation from West Coast Baptist College.  By getting memberships to the Reagan Library, we were entitled to visit other presidential libraries around the country.  The JFK Library is only an hour or so away from us in Boston, so we decided to take the day to go.  It was a beautiful summer day and the library is right on the harbor overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  It was an interesting day that brought back many memories of my childhood growing up.  I was just a little boy less than five years old when I was playing on the front steps of my house.  My grandfather and grandmother lived right across the street from us.  My father came out of the house shouting to my grandfather across the street, “Kennedy has been shot!”  It was a devastating time for our nation.  My family mourned for the loss of President Kennedy.  I remember watching the funeral procession on the black and white television and seeing little John saluting the casket of his father as it went by him.  How my family cried.  My grandmother and grandfather had a picture of JFK on the wall in the kitchen in their house, right next to a picture of the pope and a picture of the sacred heart of Jesus.
They were very religious people.  It is amazing how the times changed.  Fast forward some sixteen years later after the presidency of Jimmy Carter and the new beloved president of my family was Ronald Reagan.  It was amazing to contrast the two leaders as I walk through both libraries.

 

We topped the day off with pizza at a famous pizzeria in the Boston’s North End.  It was probably the best pizza I ever had!!  Just a few short blocks away was the Copp’s Hill burial ground and the Old North Church, where the lanterns were hung signaling “one if by land, two if by sea.”  Such history!
Robert Newman was the sexton of Christ’s Church, which is now the Old North Church.  He is buried in the graveyard.  And then there is the statue and the home of Paul Revere.
What the Sons of Liberty endured for the cost of our freedom!  I am reminded of the cost Jesus paid for our freedom!  He gave His life on an old rugged cross that we might be free from the bondage of sin.  What a great God He is!