Pledge of Allegiance

I work in a school, so I hear it every day. On some occasions when we are gathered together, there are times when as a group we Pledge Allegiance to the Flag. (And we should) It gives a sense of patriotism and pride in our country. I remember a time after 9/11 when the recited words even brought tears to my eyes. (Yes, I am a very emotional person.) Today I was thinking about something that happened during Hurricane Gustav. We were going stir crazy inside with no electricity. Tired of staring at one another and interested in seeing what had happened in the community, we decided to drive around in the air conditioned vehicle for a bit. During our short outing we drove to the River Walk. That's where I saw this flag. It was a huge flag, flying in the wind and rain. It was tattered and torn with a part of it missing. The entire top right quarter of it was gone. I can't explain exactly what it said to me, but it was sort of sad and I felt compelled to take a picture of it. Today I was sitting with my guitar and playing and singing for a while. I was going over and over a part of a song that says "You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me." As a Praise and Worship leader it is awesome to see a congregation in one accord singing to Him about how lovely, worthy, and wonderful He is. My mind was going over that, and I began thinking, how we get together as a group to recite the well deserved Pledge of Allegiance to that flag. I thought of Jesus and how wonderful He really is, how deserving He really is of our praise and worship. Allegiance means: Loyalty to; devoted support - The flag that deserves our allegiance can become tattered, ripped, and ruined in a storm. Even without a storm in time the flag will become worn and less than its original beauty. But Jesus - God - our Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever! How much more does our God deserve our corporate praise of Him. God will not fade away. He will not become frayed, or ragged, or used. He is and will always be King of all Kings and Greatly to be praised! He is and always will be deserving of our Pledge of Allegiance to Him - Our vocalized promise of loyalty to Him in praise.