This weekend most of us will probably be flipping burgers, hanging flags, waving sparklers, and celebrating a fun holiday called The Fourth of July.
No one really calls it Independence Day anymore. But we all sort of understand we’re celebrating our freedoms in America. Probably you remember that July 4 is the anniversary of the publication of the Declaration of Independence. It is also therefore the anniversary of officially declaring war against Great Britain. Our nation launched into a bloody conflict that was predetermined to be worth the cost for the rewards of freedom and new citizenship.
Our culture is so risk-averse and safety obsessed, I wonder if we can fathom the concept of comparing the devastating toll of warfare (including the likely deaths of your father, yourself, your husband, your sons–or all of the above) with a suffering life under tyranny and terror. Weighing which would be worse. And then choosing, as Patrick Henry famously said, “Give me liberty or give me death!”
Some freedoms are worth sacrificing for. Some citizenships are worth dying for.
Like our freedom in Christ. And our citizenship in Heaven, for starters.
The 4th of July is my favorite holiday not just because I love America. But even more because I love how our national freedoms point us to our supernatural ones. Also bought with heroic blood. But far better.
We have been freed from the greatest enemy and worst tyrant of all: Sin. And we have been given the full rights of not just citizenship but of royalty in a land of eternal peace and joy. Better than anything or anywhere we’ve known.
So, while you’re lighting off those bottle rockets and whistling God Bless the U.S.A., remember our True source of freedom and our True homeland, and give thanks.
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ…”(Philippians 3:20).
