Two of the United States’ founding fathers went together on a vacation tour of England while they wee stationed there on U.S. Government assignments in 1786. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both enjoyed gardening and farming, as well as both being fans of Shakespeare, and so they stopped at Stratford- upon- Avon to visit Shakespeare’s house. In his biography of John Adams, David McCullough wrote of the visit: “Told that an old wooden chair in a corner by the chimney was where the bard himself had sat, the two American tourists cut off souvenir chips, this ‘according to the custom,’ Adams was quick to note “ (John Adams, by David McCullough, pg. 359)

When I read this I was astonished that two men with the extraordinary vision to help shape the forming of an entirely new federal government in the world, would lack the simple vision of the fate of Shakespeare’s chair from visiting tourists. Adams and Jefferson were both great men, but I suppose even great men may lose some of their perspective when on vacation.

The devotion, time, energy, and personal resources each man poured into first the independence of the colonies, and then the formation of a new government, supplied much of the bedrock of the new nation. They remained friends until after they had returned to the U.S, where politics eventually separated them and they stopped communicating with each other until near the end of their lives. They both died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which they had both signed.

The Pharisees asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment?” Jesus answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind… and the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-38) For all the great achievements of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both of them presidents of the United States at critical, developmental times in the nation’s history; in their old age, they both valued the friendship they had once enjoyed among their greatest treasures.

Politics is one of the biggest, most pervasive of distractions from our Father God’s commandment. It concerns the exterior of our lives while the love of God lives in the interior,manifesting itself in friendships and selflessness. By the grace of God, Jefferson and Adams lived long enough to be reconciled and leave a heritage of that grace.

Love in Him,

Prue