Broken Flagpole

It's been a long, cold, and snowy winter. In addition, there's been exceptionally strong winds at times.

After a few days of February thaw, I discovered, to my dismay, my flag pole had broken off at its base during one of the windstorms, and the flag was resting on the ground. I had no idea how long the flag had laid there, hidden by the snow. I was mortified. I knew flag etiquette. My husband was a career military man. The American flag is not to touch the ground! Not ever!

I remembered when my husband was first assigned to Fort Lee, Virginia. One day I arrived on base about 5 p.m. to pick him up at the end of his work day. Suddenly, all the traffic around me stopped, the doors of cars and trucks flew open, and all the uniformed personnel jumped out onto the road and came to attention. Everyone had turned in the same direction, saluted and held their salute. On the sidewalk beside my car, men and women in uniform had likewise stopped in their tracks, turned in the same direction, and saluted. I looked in the direction that everyone faced, but I could see nothing to cause such a reaction. After a minute, at the same instant, everyone dropped their salute and returned to their prior activity. I was mystified. What had just happened?

My husband explained it to me. Flags on military bases are retired for the day (lowered) at 5 o-clock. Military personnel are to come to attention and salute the flag during that time. All over Fort Lee through loud speakers, the trumpet call for lowering the flag had sounded forth. That's why all the vehicle traffic and pedestrians stopped at the same moment. But I protested. Why did everyone face in the same direction. I looked. I didn't see a flag going down. He said that everyone was faced toward the main flag on the Army base. It didn't matter whether you could see it or not, that was the direction to face!

There were other occasions when I learned flag protocol:

• I taught my den of cub scouts how to fold a flag into it's three cornered shape after being removed from a flag pole.


• Years later, we raised and lowered the flag daily in front of our family business. On those days when the flag was to be flown at half mast, it was proper protocol to raise the flag to the top of the pole before being lowered for the day.


• I was the recipient of the folded flag after a military funeral. Folded inside it were the spent bullets from the honor guard's volley in honor of my loved one.

It was for those reasons that I felt shame and guilt to know that I had allowed the American flag to lay on the ground under a covering of snow for days, perhaps for weeks. Without meaning to, I had allowed it to be defiled.

Since then, I've been thinking of other times when we do things unintentionally that lead to the same kind of shame and guilt. Things that we won't ever be able to undo, no matter what. Things that the Bible describes as unintentional sins: "But if you sin unintentionally..." Numbers 15:22a Things like running over the family pet with your car. Telling a joke about a funeral without realizing the person you're talking to was just notified that someone they loved had died. Walking in on someone undressed in a room when you thought the room was empty. Forgetting to put your car in park, so that it rolls down your driveway, across the street, and bashes in the side if the neighbor's restored 65 Mustang. All of us have committed these kind of unintentional sins that we cannot ever make right.

Isn't it wonderful to know that we have a God who has provided a remedy for the guilt we feel over these things. In the Old Testament, there were atoning sacrifices for unintentional sins. They're described in Numbers 25. However, now there is the better way that sin has been dealt with. Jesus Christ came as the final atoning sacrifice for all sins. We no longer have to carry the guilt and shame of unintentional sins (or deliberate sins). When Jesus was dying on the cross, he said, concerning those who were putting him to death, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34 The rest of the New Testament testifies that Jesus continues to ask this of God on the behalf of all mankind, and especially on behalf of those who call Him Savior and Lord. Isn't this a comfort?