REFLECTIONS ON AMERICA’s 250th ANNIVERSARY:
- brittbryan1001
- Jul 4
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 5
A Thousand Tiny Pieces Become Something Whole
July 4, 2026.
Today, our country celebrates its Semiquincentennial. And in honor of this special occasion, I purchased a puzzle – like I do for every holiday – to put on display for the season.
I am a puzzle lover. The truth is, I think everyone is – even the people who insist they aren't. I know this because there is almost always a puzzle on my kitchen table that is somewhere in the process of coming together, and when people stop by, it doesn't take long before they start casually searching for a piece. When they spot one, they’re hooked and absentmindedly sit down at the table to find “just one more piece.” It’s like a Siren Song; they’re drawn in and there is nothing they can do about it.
This is also how I've ended up losing a piece or two over the years. Eventually, I invested in a large puzzle board with multiple drawers for separating pieces so they wouldn't disappear. Worth every penny.
Still, it's always kind of a miracle to me when I reach the end of a puzzle and every piece has found its place. Because the process is pure chaos. A thousand pieces are dumped out and scattered everywhere, it takes an hour just to flip the pieces over and find all the edge pieces and seclude the four corner pieces. Once that is done, the picture is still impossible to see, and the tedious process of searching begins. But slowly, one connection at a time, all the pieces eventually find their rightful place and what started as a pile of fragments forms a complete picture.
Puzzles make pretty good metaphors for life.
This particular puzzle is a collage of historical American events and it reads, “USA 250” in the middle, right above a map of the United States. I’ve been working on it for the past few days and today I reached the point where I just had the middle section left – the map. Every piece was the exact same shade of red, and I’d saved it for last because I knew it would be tough.
America lay before me in fragments. All the red pieces were laying out separately on the table, representing states that were divided and far apart. And I thought to myself, “if that’s not a metaphor for America today, then….” I never know how to finish a sentence like that. You get the point.
To be honest, the “United” part of our nation’s name has felt more than a little ironic of late. I think many people, me included, have struggled to feel much American pride in recent years. I love my country and have never wanted to live elsewhere. But I have felt deep shame for many decisions our leaders have made that seem to want to move us backwards to a time of division and suspicion rather than toward more inclusion and belonging.
In this current climate, political rhetoric increasingly borrows the language of religious fundamentalism, which promotes strict conformity and stifles the innovation, imagination and progress that have long defined our nation. In my opinion, it is the reason our nation continues to grow more and more divided, even while proclaiming that America is a “Christian nation.”
When working on a puzzle, it’s glaringly obvious that not every piece is meant to go together. That’s politics and religion – and the mixing of the two has created a version of Christianity that is so far removed from the teachings of the gospel that the two seem irreconcilable. It has placed loyalty to nation over faithfulness to the Way of Jesus.
Over the past many years, I have spoken out against the rise of Christian nationalism that has become a stand-in for patriotism, and I will continue to wholeheartedly reject that lie. Yet, while I am crystal clear that our allegiance is to Christ alone, I find myself wrestling with how to speak out against injustice in an increasingly contentious environment. My desire is to faithfully follow Christ, but still I frequently wonder: Am I just preaching to the choir? What I know for sure is that adding more anger and blame to the already blazing fire of hateful rhetoric will not solve anything or make me more righteous, faithful, or patriotic. So, I tend to come away with the feeling that it’s just easier to separate myself from any display that might be confused with American exceptionalism at best and jingoism at worst.
In these moments, I have to ask myself: How do I reconcile the parts of me that love my country with the parts that are ashamed? How do I resolve the tension between wanting to proudly share my faith in Jesus with the fear of that being labeled as one of “those Christians”? When trust in religious institutions has been shattered, how can we help put the pieces back together in a way that leads others to an authentic, Christ-centered faith?
And these are just my own internal struggles. This is not to mention the relational problems caused by our current political atmosphere. I mean, how do we reunite people who have been told to view one another as the enemy, even when every dispute cannot be settled? How can Americans experience unity without forcing uniformity? How can we instill trust in political institutions that have failed some and promoted others?
I had all these thoughts as I worked to put together this puzzle. So many other easy metaphors came to mind as well, like:
Progress is made little by little.
Every part contributes something only it can.
Every piece has a place, but not every piece belongs next to another.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
We belong to something larger than ourselves.
Connections create meaning.
Unity does not require uniformity.
Diversity strengthens the whole.
Separate isn't the same as divided.
The distance between pieces can be overcome.
I hung onto that last one for a moment, as I put the final tiny pieces into place, the distance between the states growing smaller, each waiting to be connected to something larger than itself. And piece by piece, the scattered states began to resemble a nation again.
The founding of our nation reflects a thousand tiny decisions, becoming something whole to create what was once unimaginable: a more perfect union. That is what has always made America distinct and special – that push to build something larger than any one person or generation.
The problem has never been our differences. The real threat is the pursuit of sameness – the belief that everyone must think alike, believe alike, or vote alike to belong. In a puzzle, if every piece looked the same, there would be no picture to build.
Diversity is not a flaw in the design – it is the design itself.
It’s taken me a while to get here, and I am by no means done with this work, but today, I refuse to let my patriotism be taken from me. I refuse to allow Christian nationalism to co-opt and corrupt the faith that means everything to me. I don't believe America is a Christian nation, nor do I think it should be. I think we should be more concerned with whether or not we, as Christians, are representing Christ in our own lives and interactions.
For me, reconciliation and seeking the common good is part of the work of public theology and what I feel called to. My faith in Jesus tells me that we are meant to be in community where no one is outside the boundary of belonging. Where a thousand tiny pieces become something whole.
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