Happy Fourth of July! This is a day many people love to celebrate with gatherings of family and friends, barbecues on the patio, and games in the yard. Others picnic at the beach, lake, or river where they swim, float on inner tubes, or sunbathe. Still others take in a sporting event like car races or baseball games. Then, as the sky gets dark, the fireworks get popping!
Whether at professionally synchronized shows or backyard displays, children and adults alike "ooooh" and "aaaah" at the beauty above their heads while protecting their ears from the concussive BOOMS. It's Independence Day and thus we celebrate.
The question I have to ask myself is this, "What are we celebrating?" Sitting here two hundred and thirty plus years after our country gained its independence, do I, do many of us, give a thought to what we are really celebrating and what it truly cost? What did a life cost? What was the cost of pain, suffering, dismemberment. Were were they worth? More than money can ever buy.
So, what am I trying to say? I don't know. I guess it is something like this. I take my freedom as a person living in a free country for granted. That is just the way my life is. The sacrifices made two centuries age, the determination in the hearts and souls of all at war, and the blood that was shed have become no more that words in the pages of history books.
Don't get me wrong. I am so very thankful for the men and women who made this country great. I am thankful for this day of celebration. But, at times it grieves me that I can forget so easily what it cost. Our freedom was not free.
Remembering my American freedom, bought with shed blood. Remembering my freedom in Christ, also bought with shed blood.
Jan
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