Oak Leaf #93

The Fifth Crucible (By Marc Nuttle)
  - Webster’s definition of a crucible is a severe, searching test or trial. There are many biblical references to the refining of the Lord’s word or a society’s character through the purification process of a crucible. The United States of America, four times in its history, has gone through a challenge of circumstances that tested who we were as a people. In the process, our ancestors were forced to explore their core beliefs. In surviving the crucible, they were required to determine the extent of sacrifice they were willing to render for the munificence of the generations. Those were our times of a crucible. There have been four of them.