O-H. You know the correct response. I-O. O-H-I-O. I know that it’s Saturday and Ohio State is playing at Penn State so you’re thinking this devotional is about college football. Well, you guessed wrong. According to the National Day Calendar, this is National Ohio Day – not Ohio State Day.
Ohio became the 17th state admitted to the Union on March 1, 1803. You may wonder why March doesn’t host National Ohio Day. That’s a good question and the answer is rather complex! Some resources say this is the day that President Jefferson established the borders of Ohio. Another source says that “In November 1802, the Ohio State Convention, located in Chillicothe, petitioned for admittance in the United States by approving the Ohio Constitution.”1
If this isn’t complicated enough, did you know that Ohio is technically the 48th state and that we didn’t officially become a state until May 19, 1953? Now, that’s a piece of Ohio history I’ll bet you never heard before.
It seems that back in 1803, the government goofed! Hard to imagine, right? But the government failed to ratify the Ohio constitution. Therefore, without a ratified constitution, we weren’t really a state.
“So how did we finally become a state? Enter an Ohio Congressman named George H. Bender. Bender was a Cleveland area politician who entered national politics in 1938 and was an Ohio Representative of the 83rd Congress in 1953 when the Ohio statehood issue resurfaced. On January 13, he introduced legislation to grant statehood to Ohio. On May 19, the House voted to grant statehood to Ohio, retroactive to March 1, 1803. Later, Bender stated that, “The State constitutional convention presented the Constitution of Ohio to Congress on February 19, 1803, and Congress chose to ignore the whole business.”2
The state of Ohio is either 221 years old or 71 years old, depending on how you want to reckon it.
As Ohioans, we are proud of our state. We love being from Ohio. We take pride in our small communities, farmland, industry, and of course, our Ohio State Buckeyes.
Ohio is home to eight professional teams: Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Guardians (MLB), Columbus Crew and FC Cincinnati (MLS), Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA), Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns (NFL), and the Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL). Our state bird is the cardinal. The state flower is the red carnation. Our state bug is the ladybug. And our state beverage is – tomato juice! The slogan of our state says it clearly: The Heart of it All.
We are known as the “Mother of Presidents” with seven coming from our state: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William H. Taft and Warren G. Harding.3
We are known for our buckeyes – both the tree and the chocolate dipped peanut butter balls.
We have two major theme parks – Cedar Point and King’s Island – plus dozens of smaller parks, including the water parks.
Ohio is the birthplace of flight even though North Carolina’s slogan is First In Flight. Hey, North Carolinians – we just borrowed your air! We gave birth to the Wright brothers who took their DAYTON, OHIO invention to your air space. We also introduced the world to John Glenn and Neil Armstrong.
We would like to believe that Ohio is God’s country. That has got to be true, at least in this hemisphere. However, the truth is, God has told us what “God’s country” is. Isaiah 31:5 says, “As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.”
Through the years and even now, we see Israel fighting for land that God had given them. Joshua 1:3-4 says, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. (4) From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.” Currently, Israel doesn’t 
possess all that rightfully belongs to them. One day, they will.
Out of all the land of Israel, God does have a favorite place. Psalms 87:2 says, “The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” The Psalmist reminds us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. The day is coming where our Savior is going to sit upon the throne of David in Jerusalem, ruling the nations.
As Christians, we must love Israel, too. We must bless them if we expect blessing. (Genesis 12:1-3). While we love Ohio, there is nothing in Scripture that says it will last forever. We do have Scripture telling us that a glorious day is coming for Israel. That day is rapidly approaching. May we yearn for the day of the fulfillment of God’s promises found in Joel 3:19-21.
“Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. (20) But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. (21) For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.”
1https://www.ohiohistory.org/ohio-the-48th-state/
2Ibid.
3https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/ohio/national-ohio-day/530-b0fc92a1-ae52-4008-8f74-81e064bccac5
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.
