The 4th of July

I hope y'all had a wonderful 4th of July. We went to a parade (one of my girls was in it), enjoyed a relaxing afternoon, then went to see fireworks at the park. I think the kids enjoyed it. I did.

Growing up, July 4 was always one of my favorite days of the year. Typically speaking, no one had to work and the morning was spent gathering all of our stuff for the evening "picnic." This picnic was not a traditional thing. It wasn't a quaint, one basket, one blanket, one family affair. Nope, this thing was out of control. We would meet a group of friends at Town Lake starting around 4:00 p.m. Often times the amount of stuff taken would require at least one or two people to return to the cars to get the rest of it. There was always some sort of food theme, but my favorite was when we did fried chicken. The day was filled with family and friends. We would play games, listen to the local symphany play every patriotic song ever written at least three times and just enjoy other's company. From where we sat, we could see another parks fireworks display before Town Lake started theirs. After the display ended, we would clean up and head to the cars. We had been doing this for a while when our tradition changed slightly at this point. I am not sure when it my parents decided that we would no longer sit in our car, not moving, to get out of down town, but one year, we loaded up all the stuff in the car except the basics needed for sitting and a few drinks, and we walked over to the corner and watched the traffic go. Or not, go as was the case really. They had a few police men posted at the corner where we would sit and watch. They would turn off the lights and attempttto director traffic, though few people actually paid any attention to them. After a while, their shift would end and more than once, we had a police come join our group for a soda, some cold fried chicken and a laugh. One year, we witnessed a wreck that was pretty bad and another year, before the police arrived, one of our guys jumped out and started directing traffic. It was so funny because people were actually doing what he said. Unfortunantly, the city changed much of how it was doing it's celebration, and eventually, this picnic dwindled down. It was sad really.

One fourth of July will always stick out for me in a special way. July 4, 1995 found me standing on a river bank, holding a hand made American flags, my arm wrapped around a friend, singing every patriotic song we could think of, longing to be home but blessed to be able to do the work we were doing. Celebrating the 4th of July in a forgein country will forever leave a mark on an American. It is helps one to realize how truly blessed we are to live in a land that does not control every aspect of our lives and beliefs. The sacrifices that have been made become more clear, the appreciation for our freedoms become deeper, and the freedom we have taste sweeter than anything ever tasted before.

And even at nineteen years old, I couldn't miss the obvious paralells of Christianity to the situation. Every week, on the day when I remember my independence day, I am not in my native land. I am standing on forgien soil, singing songs of my home land, with my arms wrapped around a friend, longing for home but blessed to be able to the work I am doing. Celebrating my independence day from Satan in this forgein land has left mark on me. It has helped to me realize how truly blessed I am to be a daughter of the King. It has helped me to remember how blessed I am to live a life of freedom from sin that was greater than my life of freedom in sin. The sacrifice that was made for becomes clearer, my appreciation for that sacrifice becomes deeper, and the freedom I have to serve my Lord and not Satan taste sweeter than anything ever tasted before.