On Christmas Eve, in the Year of Our Lord 2000, the Millennium Year, as the Man for the Millenniums, George Washington, The Spirit of George Washington rode his horses and carriage from Mount Vernon to Valley Forge to the Washington Memorial Chapel to share a Washington Prayer at the traditional Midnight Christmas Service.
Some time later after all had gone home, the Spirit of George Washington knelt in the snow outside the Washington Memorial Chapel in the rolling hills of Valley Forge and prayed for our Nation in the same spirit as General George Washington had done so many times so many years before.
All across America, patriotic Americans are proud to say "I have one of those paintings of Washington praying at Valley Forge..." and often add, "with the horse." so I know immediately that they mean the beautiful work by the artist Arnold Friberg.
Here you see some screen shots of the artists website where you too can buy your very own copy of that wonderful scene of America's greatest leader, George Washington, humbling himself and kneeling in prayer to Our Father Who Art in Heaven for mercy for the life of his men, and for the life of our infant nation.
Some interesting linkages are that if you read Artist Arnold Friberg's biography you see that he was an artist for the Ten Commandments movie by Cecil B. DeMille.
When in April a.d. 2000, George Washington LIVES! did a Prayer Pilgrimage from February to July of over 30,033 miles four times from Sea to Shining Sea, he discovered in Washington, North Carolina an historical marker that as a boy Cecil B. DeMille grew up in that town of Washington, that claims to be the first named for George Washington (but then so do the towns in New Hampshire, Virginia, and Georgia.)
On 20 September a.d. 2000, the Spirit of George Washington LIVES! was the keynote speaker for over 100 college presidents and deans talking about this Constitution for the United States of America, and its relationship to the Ten Commandments and other of God's Law, as Divine Providence would have it the Master of Ceremonies told about a little boy in a small town during Holy Week who arrived at a church on a rainy Tuesday a quarter before the Noon time scheduled service.
No one else was there until 3 minutes before noon, and the preacher came in to an empty church. The little boy expected the preacher to say, "Well Sonny, there is nobody here, so you can run on home now." But instead, the preacher came and gave a stem-winder of a sermon and an inspired service that the boy said changed his life forever.
The boy was Cecil B. DeMille. The town was Washington, North Carolina.
And so as Paul Harvey would say, "And now you know the rest of the story."
Further, note that Arnold Friberg studied with the man who has been called "America's Favorite Artist" -- Norman Rockwell. In a.d. 1948, for the Boy Scouts, Norman Rockwell painted "Our Heritage" showing a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout looking up through the blue fog of History at General George Washington kneeling in Prayer for America.
The illustration shows the original Rockwell painting and the banner that the aide to General George Washington James Renwick Manship, Sr. prepared that removes the blue haze of History and the horse so the praying General can be more clearly seen. This revised image was placed on a banner that served as part of the backdrop to the C-SPAN televised George Washington Man of the Millennium Book Festival in Alexandria on 26 February a.d. 2000.
And a personal note is the much beloved grandfather of Washington's aide, "Major" Manship, was like Arnold Friberg, a student at the Chicago Art Institute. Ledlie William Conger, Sr. produced a book in a.d. 1971 called "Sketching and Etching Georgia" dedicated to his grandchildren, including James.
