The Braves were better then

When I was a kid I went to Milwaukee County Stadium and watched the Braves play. Yes, they were in Milwaukee before Atlanta. They were very good then. Better then they are now. For a long time I thought the end of the national anthem was about our team, "...and the home of the braves.."

Of course it was not. Francis Scott Key wrote the poem around 1812. I am sure you will sing the lyrics if you go to a game this year....but probably not the last verse. It goes like this:

"Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation,
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our Trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave."

While he does not get to the atoning work of Christ, I think he at least acknowledges God is the one in whom we should trust and we should praise Him as the One who preserves us.

Freedom. A banner does indeed fly over us in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Play Ball! And as you sing, think of the One who created us all.