A Mighty Lesson In Faith

Our Constitution begins, “We, the people of Colorado, with profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe…” Our State Motto Nil sine Numine – Nothing without Providence – was advanced by the first territorial governor The Hon. William Gilpin.

 

Common popular acknowledgment of the higher authority is a defining feature of our state’s culture, its history, its government, and its most important institutions including the courts, the executive, the legislature, our universities, public schools, etc. Accordingly, each legislative day of the Colorado General Assembly begins in prayer, typically led by the House or Senate Chaplain. 

 

For most of our state’s history, this was the case in public schools, too. It is only by recent judicial fabrication the First Amendment’s Free-Exercise Clause is presumed banished in schools.

 

However, today’s school-wide celebration of Ezra Black’s life easily overpowers the otiose restraint of errant magistrates. It rather affirms Justice Potter Stewart’s famous dissent underscoring the inadequacy of dishonest judges against the nation’s vaunted sentiments expressed, for example, by its heralded motto “In God We Trust.”

 

Unwavering faith and prayer were the basis of Ezra’s character, courage, countenance, virtue, and friendships. This stands at the core of his legacy.

 

Truly, “profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe” is the essence of what our common Colorado school, with fidelity, celebrates upon countless happy remembrances of our beloved 2022 Liberty Common School alumnus. The precise and unmistakable clarion intoned by a steadfast young man is a powerful life statement indeed. 

 

The Supreme Ruler from whom Ezra took inspiration, as history records, “is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” It is, for all to behold, a rather vivid expression of eternal liberty and a mighty lesson in faith.