Since arriving back in the United States we’ve walked by Independence Hall where the founding fathers adopted the Declaration of Independence and yesterday we took a day trip to Washington D.C. and one of our stops was to the National Archives, this building was officially added as a place not to skip after the movie National Treasure. We wanted to see all the cool places they showed in the movie, but the only picture that we were able to take was on the outside of the building. Why in the world did they need that big of a door if they didn’t plan on using it?
I also wanted to see if the gifts shop copy of the Declaration cost as much as what she tried to charge Benjamin Gates, also known as Nicolas Cage. It doesn’t. I thought about taking in a screwdriver wearing a tuxedo under my clothes but I didn’t, I had the boys with me plus it would be hard to hide a tux under my shorts. I know everyone wants to know what is on the back of the Declaration when it’s put in the oven, I was thinking blog post.
What really shocked me was that on display under an inch of glass, 2 armed guards a few hundred sensors and making sure that the kids don’t lean too close and a few dozen cameras, all like the movie showed, is that the Words of the Declaration of Independence are disappearing; it almost looks like a really big white piece of paper. They blamed it on the Patent Office Building displaying it across from a window with exposure to sunlight for 35 years. I’m thinking someone really tried to squeeze lemons on the back of the Declaration and it bled through. I could make out the W from When in the course of human events… and the J in John Hancock but even though Timothy Matlack worked so hard to make it fit perfectly onto one big piece of paper I don’t know how much longer this 236 year old document will be readable. Not to worry there are many copies. And is it the paper that makes those words important or the words themselves?
Go now, write it on a tablet for them,
inscribe it on a scroll,
that for the days to come
it may be an everlasting witness. Isaiah 30:8
What are we doing with the Words that God has left for us?
D squared + J squared = Anderson 
It is not the paper, but the words. And the most important words are in the Word. Of course, we remember “The word became flesh and lived among us.” Now that’s a word to remember.
I would agree that is an important word to remember and we don’t need to worry about fading.