My Country Tis Of Thee

I sometimes lead tours of school children through a small Midwestern museum. The children I get are usually the very youngest and some people think there is really nothing they can learn from us.

I don't think that is true, but I do know that there is much I can learn from them.

Yesterday I met fifteen children, ages 3 to 5 outside as they pulled into our parking lot. I showed them a folded American flag and asked them what shape it was. They were eager to tell me that it was a triangle, but they added, "It is a flag!" Then they wanted to show me that they knew the Pledge of Allegiance.

I asked them to wait until I raised the flag and then we could all say it together. As I went about this business I talked to them about the right way to raise the flag. How it should not touch the ground and how the stars needed to be at the top and I have to admit it always stirs my soul a bit when I raise our flag. It is windy out there and as soon as it hits the top and I pull the rope down tight to secure it, the wind catches it and it unfurls so majestically that sometimes I expect to hear a trumpet, or even a symphony playing the Star Spangled Banner, but I never have.

Yesterday, just as the flag unfurled I saw fifteen tiny children all place their right hands over their hearts and simultaneously start saying the Pledge of Allegiance. They said it proudly and loudly and very clearly for such tiny tots. It touched me to the core.

But not as much as what came next. As they finished the pledge and I turned to lead them into the building, they all burst out in song. Fifteen tiny, clear, sweet, voices singing My Country Tis Of Thee. Not one faltered! No one cued them. They just did it!

It was stunning.