By Jack Wyman

If things had gone differently, he could have been hanged as a traitor.

As it turned out, he led a hopelessly outmatched, underfed, and ill-clothed army to an improbable victory over the greatest military power on earth. The grateful people of a new nation hailed him as their hero of independence.

When the 55 men who gathered in Philadelphia to create a new government needed a presiding officer, there was no other logical choice.

He was the Indispensable Man of the founding era.

Two years later, after the framers of the American Republic wisely rejected the idea of six chief executives and settled on one, he was elected our nation’s first president—by acclamation. He was so revered by his countrymen that his rise to leadership in the nation he cherished was uninterrupted and natural.

George Washington, who turned 291 yesterday, had plenty of ambition but his dignity and integrity kept it well concealed.

On April 30, 1789, under clear blue skies, Washington stood on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City and placed his right hand on an open Bible to take the presidential oath of office. The cannon and wild cheers of the crowds embarrassed him. Following the ceremony, he quickly entered the hall to deliver his inaugural address to a joint session of the newly-formed House and Senate.

He was no orator.

Without a prepared text he was at times inarticulate. His gift was not brilliance or wit as much as it was an incorruptible character. He spoke simply, clearly, and from his heart about his journey to this time and place.

Washington told the Congress that he had planned to remain retired at Mount Vernon, which he described as “the asylum of my declining years.” Yet he had been “summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love. . .”

He spoke with candid humility about his “conflict of emotions.” He was overwhelmed with “despondence. . . inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration. . .”

Such sincere professions of inadequacy would today seem strange amidst the preening narcissism of out-sized political egos.

Washington spoke of the “weighty and untried cares before me. . .” Considering all that lay ahead, he told the new Congress, “it would be improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect. . .”

When God asked the new King Solomon what he wanted, Solomon told the Lord:

 “I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. . . So give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?” (I Kings 3: 7, 9).

Washington remembered what Solomon had prayed for, wisdom to lead. Our first president’s humble plea for divine help was a recognition that God had directed the birth of the new nation:

“No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States.” Washington knew that “every step” along the path toward American independence had “been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”

He had seen the sovereign providence of God. He had experienced it. He had witnessed the “Invisible Hand” at work, guiding and protecting. Some might say America was “lucky.” Washington knew better.

As we honor our presidents in February, we’d be wise to remember that leaders are chosen by the will of God, molded and shaped by the circumstances of God, and placed in authority at the destined time for the purposes of God. Even those who came to power “accidentally” were no accidents.

In every American crisis since the Presidency was established, God has divinely placed the right leader at the right time for the right reasons. Those we regard as great were there by the appointment of a great God. 

There is perhaps no finer example of God’s grace shed upon America than in the providence of presidential leadership. From the best to the worst, God works his almighty purposes, for his own glory, not for the glory of man. 

George Washington had several close calls in battle. Miracles of deliverance, one might say. Because God had a plan. He still does. The leader who was created, protected, called, and used in such a powerful way at the dawn of this republic set an example for all his successors—for the people of his fledgling country—and for all of us today.

In the midst of our spiritual waywardness and alienation; our profound moral and political divisions, our founder’s wise counsel is as relevant as tomorrow’s headlines. 

There is, he told America, “no truth more thoroughly established than . . . an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness.” Without doubt, he insisted “that the smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained. . .”

When the righteous rule, the Bible tells us, the people rejoice. But when the wicked rule, the people mourn (Proverbs 29:2).

The man who had so conspicuously pledged his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor to the greatest experiment in self-government the world has ever known, offered a challenge to his countrymen:

“. . . the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are. . . entrusted to the hands of the American people.”

In the end, Washington observed, it’s up to us. All of us. Each of us.

 It’s for you and me, as Christians and as Americans, to fan this “sacred fire of liberty.” To assume with courage those moral obligations of thoughtful citizenship our forebears fought so hard to secure.

 It’s up to us.

To order Jack Wyman’s book, “Everything Else: Stories of Life, Faith and Our World”, go to amazon.com, Christian Book Distributors or barnesandnoble.com. It is also available on Kindle and eBooks.

WE NEED YOU! Would you consider partnering with us as a monthly donor to support the work of our nonprofit ministry? Or maybe a generous one-time donation?