The Muse is Loose

It was appropriate that the first symbol for the birth of a place of freedom for worship and life would be a rock. The rock is still there to be seen. It is protected now, almost too protected, I think. A rather massive cover is built around and over the rock. You look down into a "hole" to see the rock. It wasn't nearly as big as I had imagined. They estimate it weighs 20,000 pounds. That isn't very big for a rock.
It was split centuries ago and a part of the rock was moved. Later it would be put together again. Vandals have chipped away at it in earlier times, so protection was necessary. But there it lies. The rock where William Bradford and his small band of pilgrims landed on the shore of what is now Massachusetts in the year 1620. They had found the new world of freedom. They would soon discover freedom came with a terrible price. A harsh winter would take many lives. Cole Hill is just above the location of the rock. It is said that many of those first pilgrims were laid to rest there, within sight of the rock.
Plymouth Rock is a symbol of determination and hope. These people had not come in a cruise ship, but a small wind-driven wooden boat. They could not run to a store to get food and clothing. There were no hospitals or roads or motels or police protection. They had little, but their faith. Their faith, however, was big as the rock, and they survived. One hundred and sixty years later a new nation we now call the United States or America had become a reality.
So, a rock is an important symbol of our country. It is true with our God as well. The Psalmist often referred to God as our Rock. "For who is God save the Lord? Or who is a rock save our God?" (Psalm 18:31 KJV). In I Corinthians Paul wrote: "And did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ." (I Corinthians 10:4 KJV).
We have sung, "On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand." People have tried through the ages to split God and move him about and chip away at Him and His teachings. They have even tried to "protect" Him as if He could be destroyed or stolen, but unlike that little ten-ton boulder at Plymouth, Massachusetts, He is unmoveable and will endure the ages. "From everlasting to everlasting thou art God".