Thomas Jefferson’s Modesty

In the Beginning

In the beginning, now that’s a great place to start. To take an idea, a thought, or a concept and mold it into something tangible is really exciting. Genesis 1:2-5 tells us that God divided darkness and light and called it the first day. Most creations follow this path. They divide those things that can’t be seen, like thoughts and ideas and they bring them into a light, such as an invention, a constitution, or even a website.

Most good fairy tales start their “in the beginning…” with “once upon a time….” Then they close with “…they lived happily ever after.” In the middle you have a wolf, a wicked step mother, a witch, a villain, or some other character that brings conflict to the situation. They are usually stories of morals with good ultimately winning in the end. A pig, an ugly duck, or a frog could end up being the star of the show.

God takes His “in the beginning…” and expands it with his own host of characters. They face overwhelming odds as they face giants, floods, big fish, invading armies, blindness, and even a cross. People laugh at them, throw stones at them, throw them in the pits with lions, and even drive nails in their hands. Evil always seems to hold the upper hand until the end when the banner waves: “… and they lived happily ever after.”

In posting my first blog I have come to really appreciate the “…in the beginning.” Starting from scratch and hardly a geek, I have had spent so many hours reading geek-like stuff and learning geek-like language so I could move geek-like elements in a geek-like manner. I told my computer off more than once and I thought I heard it snicker at me a few times. I taunted her in my victories and cried like a baby in front of her in my many defeats. I realized I had enough and threw up the white flag and hired a professional. And so, another website was born.

Our nation was much like my struggles. Out of those struggles came a ragtag group of individuals that now stand honored in marble. Most spoke their minds, others carried their swords, and all hungered for freedom like it was as needed as the air we breathe. It is in understanding and promoting this freedom we have experienced our greatest difficulties, but through which we have also experienced our greatest growth.

Our own history had its own “in the beginning….” I don’t know, just like God’s beginning, if anyone really knows how it really happened. Were there two farmers standing out in the middle of a field one day talking? Did one say to the other, “You know, I really don’t like the way that King George fellow is treating us?” Maybe the other one responded to him, “Yeah, maybe we should get a few people together and go to Philly and talk about this.” What we do know is this: that a few brave individuals, despite the risk, decided it was worth that risk to start their own story. You might even say our story begins with our Preamble to the Constitution: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Throughout our history many have come and many have gone. We’ve had our share of heroes and a pile of villains. Those brave men in the beginning did decide that a great nation that offered such great freedoms needed a leader to stand out front and guide them. They called this individual the President. It is these individuals, mixed with my personal experiences and an odd dose of Biblical reflections, I hope you enjoy hearing about in my blogs.

To me, that “do what it takes” attitude was especially portrayed so brightly in one individual. Never one to crave the spotlight he held almost every job in our early republic. He was a magistrate, a member of the House of Burgesses, a member or the Continental Congress, a Governor, a Secretary of State, a Vice President, a President, and a founder of a university. He had very strong convictions, but when the betterment of the nation was at stake he could bend them like a reed facing a strong wind. He was perhaps one of the greatest writers in our early history. He could express our feelings by combining words that seem to flow so effortlessly. His name was Thomas Jefferson and he was our third President. The first book in our history, the Declaration of Independence, is a tribute to his expressing of our feelings for freedom.

This tall, red head, quiet, humble man almost seems out of place with all the yelling and screaming in our beginning. He rose to the highest office in our land and yet his tombstone makes no mention of that accomplishment. He may have been the most humble man to ever hold this office. He was a misfit who became a hero. Wow, what a way to start a website.

So now here we sit “in the beginning.” I look forward to spending some of my time with you as I start my journey toward the “…happily ever after.” It is my hope that you enjoy my reflections on Presidents from a perspective that probably is a little different than most people approach them.