"Oh once it was God and mother and country....once it was flags and the Fourth of July..." From
Spirit by John Stewart
The Fourth has always been a little unusual for us. We are often somewhere else-this year we were in Casper, Wyoming and watched the fireworks from our motel parking lot. Other years have found us in a small town in Tennesse, Fort Collins,CO; Washington DC and East Germany. For some reason in E Germany, no one was celebrating and we sang the "Star Spangled Banner" in the car as we drove. That was about it. No fireworks were available. The Berlin wall had just fallen and apparantly Communism took a dim view of such things as lound explosive devices-I assumed they celebrated their holidays a little more quietly.
Growing up,I didn't do much. My parents were afraid of fireworks and didn't like crowds, so sometimes we watched the city-sponsored show from quite a distance or dad played something on his old boyscout/Navy bugle on the front lawn (the neighbors thoght this was pretty funny). Pretty exciting, don't you think?
That all changed after I got married. My wife loves the Fourth and we always go and get as close as possible to the local show ("I want them overhead!") and we set them off later with friends. The kids love it and, excuse the pun, it is a blast! A famous quote from John Adams is that we should remember the 4th with celebrations and "illuminations", so we are right in step with the founders.
But I wonder what Adams, Jefferson, Franklyn, Hancock and the others would think about our modern American 4th? From what I can see, few people really understand it. Granted, most know it is about freedom and maybe even the Declaration of Independence. But it stops there. The masses just take a day off, drink a lot of beer, eat a lot of food, and watch the fireworks. They think freedom is the right to do whatever you want, whenever you want...a far cry from what the founders believed freedom to be, or what the Bible teaches it to be. In short, if you read their writings and the scriptures with some context and historical background, the following emerges: freedom is all about doing what you were meant to do in serving God and doing good and what is right. It is NOT about doing whatever you want. Freedom of speech is
not about swearing and watching porn. The right to bear arms is not about collecting machine guns. And the first amendment is not about keeping religion out of public life (more on that later).
In short, I fear most people celebrate a shallow idea of freedom and have no clue what it took to get it. If you haven't read it, read 1776 by David MCoullogh (sp?) or just get any book on the events of July, 1776. Read what happend to those men in the first Congress who dared defy the King. Think of what it means that it is "self evident" that all men are equal and are
born with rights! It was an incredibly radical idea in the day and many of those who put their name on the page paid a terrible price.
So every year, as I watch the "illuminations", I say a prayer of thanks to God for those brave men and our unique country. May we somehow get back to what we were meant to be...free to be the best we can be... and serve God the best we know how.
