Today is Inauguration Day. Eight years ago I recall watching President Bill Clinton hand the presidency to President George W. Bush, a display of the peaceful transfer of authority which marks our nation. I don’t remember which newscaster said it, but this concept has stayed with me these eight years.

Again today, this demonstration was played out before the well over a million people in the Mall and those of us watching from our TV or computer screens.

No matter your political stance, please take a moment to think on the amazing freedom of our country. Here in America, we fight viciously for our candidate of choice. Then we go to the polls and cast out vote. A winner emerges. The loser steps aside while the winner seeks to mend the divide. For the next several weeks, the incumbent president makes preparations to leave the house he has called home for the past four to eight years. He does not gather the military in order to keep the president-elect from taking office. On January 20, he graciously hands the mantle on to the next president. The people may protest, for that is a protected right here in America, but it is done peacefully. There is no violent upheaval, no wounded or dying in the streets. Instead, there is a parade.

Democracy. Freedom. This day shows these ideologies to the world more clearly than perhaps any other day. It is a day that I marvel at the blessing God has given me to be born in such a nation. With all its faults, it is still a place where one of the most powerful men in the world peacefully hands that power to another. A place where the new power asks God to bless his country. May God bless our new president with wisdom. May each of us be reminded of how blessed we are to live in such a nation as the United States of America.