Let Freedom Ring

Every Fourth of July we make plans for the family to get together for pool parties and barbecues. Fireworks light the night skies and laughter fills the air. We gather around tables of mouth-watering recipes and desserts perfectly themed for our red, white, and blue color scheme.

These are the moments. The tender moments we usually capture in our minds. The smiles, the laughs, the conversation. The time together that we crave all year long, but only make happen on holidays.

This is how I picture the last supper. Twelve men eating together as they often would. Laughing and talking and living in a moment of joy, amongst strangers that became brothers. Smiles gathering around a table of food that fed their hungry bellies while the fellowship fed their spirits.

I often wonder how the mood shifted. When did his most trusted confidants know something was different? Some may have noticed when Jesus himself began to wash their feet. The ominous feeling might have settled for the other disciples when Jesus started talking about remembering him. Undoubtedly, the atmosphere changed when Jesus opened his mouth, and words like betrayal, denial, and deceit parted from his lips.

Freedom. Freedom hovered over the Earth resembling smoke in a fireworks filled sky lingering in the night shadows. There was chaos across the land, and the King of Kings would lay down his life for freedom. The freedom to choose salvation, the freedom to choose love, and the freedom to choose eternity.

Freedom is never free. As the sun sets this evening let us take time to remember that on this night when we celebrate the Independence Day of the United States of America, a day when crowds shout at the lit skies in awe, that the price for our freedom was paid in full by both soldier and savior, and let us be thankful, giving God all of the honor and glory amidst our celebration.

Let freedom ring.