The Knot and the Tear
One day I came out of my home and the American Flag that I had hanging as a banner on the front of my house was torn in half by a bad windstorm that night. I quickly tied a knot in the middle of the flag and proceeded to my car. As I looked back the image grabbed my attention so I snapped a photograph of the flag. Later that day as I studied the photograph I felt the Spirit of God inspire me to write the following manifesto poem. The title came to me "The Knot and the Tear."
I felt at the time that God wanted to promote unity in the hearts of the people of our nation. The tear metaphorically represented the division we feel every day. The knot however represented all the things we do agree on. It is designed to be a poem of hope in a very turbulent time of division of America.
I felt the reference to God in the poem was simply His desire to sow a small seed in the hearts of all people for not only recognition of a need for Him, but a hopeful willingness to start out on a journey to find the true and living God through a relationship with His Son Jesus Christ.
The following poem came to me almost faster than I could write it down.
The Knot and the Tear
Divided Yet United
As a nation we are clearly divided by our philosophies
Yet as a nation we are clearly united by our desires for a better good
As a nation we are clearly divided by our political preferences
Yet as a nation we are clearly united by our desires for a strong country
As a nation we are clearly divided by our economic strategies
Yet as a nation we are clearly united to somehow help our needy
As a nation we are clearly divided by what we see and by what we fear
Yet as a nation we are clearly united by our recognition for our need to hope
As a nation we are clearly divided by the things that make us angry
Yet as a nation we are eventually reunited by our willingness to forgive
As a nation we are often divided on what is best for our future
Yet as a nation we are united in that we agree that whatever it is-is for the benefit of our children
As a nation we are divided on how we interpret "One Nation Under God"
Yet as a nation we realize that by the complexity of the need we need something or someone
As a nation we are divided on how we interpret the failures in history of past failures of other nations
Yet as a nation we are united on the fact that we should strive to not repeat the same mistakes
As a nation we are divided on what changes and what adaptations must for all our sakes be accomplished
Yet as a nation we must unite because whatever those things are
must be done together
