September 29, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Monday, September 29.
I made a new friend last week. He lives in a beautiful part of Washington D.C. called Embassy Row. The neighborhood got that name because it’s where many ambassadors from around the world have their homes. It’s also the location of a very special church - the National Cathedral.
On September 29, 1907, a crowd of 20,000 people that included President Teddy Roosevelt, gathered to see the cathedral’s first stone laid. On September 29, 1990 - 83 years later - President George H.W. Bush was present when the great church was finally completed. Cathedrals take a long time to build. The one in Cologne, Germany has the record of 632 years!
Our National Cathedral has hosted the funerals of countless famous figures. President Bush, himself, was one. And so were presidents Eisenhower, Reagan, Ford, and - just this past January - Jimmy Carter. Services were held there for Martin Luther King, Helen Keller, and Neil Armstrong. The legendary astronaut’s casket was illuminated by sunlight streaming through a stain glass window containing a rock he brought back from the moon.
This church is considered, by many, to be America’s church, a “house of prayer for all people.” People gathered there to pray at the end of World War II and at the close of the Vietnam War. And on September 14, 2001 - three days after 911 - they gathered there once again. The second President Bush brought a moving message of comfort and hope, as did evangelist Billy Graham.
The man who has been called “America’s pastor” shared a sermon about foundations. He told the crowd, a congregation that included leaders of our government and ambassadors from around the world, that the only part of the Twin Towers the terrorists could not destroy were their foundations, concrete platforms reaching seven stories down into the earth. He then reminded our wounded country that God’s love was a firm foundation as well, a foundation that would give us hope and confidence and strength to go on. Billy Graham is gone now, but the mighty National Cathedral remains, and so does the love of God.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
