“This is my Son, the Beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” (Mt 3:17)

Gabriel Garcia Marques, in his classic 1967 novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, writes about a village in Central America. A virus strikes this community and the virus causes amnesia. It becomes necessary to hire people from the outside world to help locals remember. They go around the village putting signs on everything with their names; “This is a floor,” “this is a table.”  On the outskirts of the village, the outsiders place two more signs. “This is the village of Macondo,” and another above it reading “God Exists.”

Great literature is very often prophetic.  Fifty years later, I think most of us would agree that our society is losing its memory of many good things. Who now remembers that this country was built in large part on a foundational belief in our Holy Scriptures?  Who now remembers that the Scriptures our great country was founded on, commands us to care for the immigrant, the outcast, and God’s creation? Whatever your personality or politics, perhaps everyone can agree that remembering who we are as a country and what we hold sacred is key to our unity and prosperity.  Maybe we also need signs; “This is America.”  “In God we trust.”  “We are our brothers’ keepers.”