This weekend, we celebrate our freedom as a country. As individuals, we have been given the great gift of freedom, bought and paid for by the blood of many patriots over the years. Over this weekend of picnics, beach parties, parades, and fireworks, we cannot forget the reason we can celebrate. Our freedom came with a price, a sacrifice many of us might pause before making.
At the same time, this weekend reminds me of my spiritual freedom. God is a just God, a God who holds people accountable for their sins and errors, their disobedience and willfulness. Every person sins, and therefore, every person has failed in the eyes of God. No matter how good we try to live, we are captive, enslaved, prisoner to our sin and sinful nature. Despite this, God has freed us through Jesus. We are free, not because of anything we have done, but through the actions of Jesus. We are free!
This leads to the question – Will God still love us when we disappoint God?
The Great News that God gives us is, “Yes!” God loves us with a crazy, unbelievable, out-of-this-world love. Jesus told the story of the Prodigal Son to help us to know this truth. God not only welcomes us back home, God watches for us and rushes out to find us and bring us home again.
There is a great song performed by Chris Tomlin that perfectly illustrates this truth called, “Come Home Running.” Check out these words…
Oh heart of mine, why must you stray?
From one so fair you run away
And one more time you have to pay
The heaviness of needless shame
Oh heart of mine, come back home
You’ve been too long out on your own
And He’s been there all along
Watching for you down the road
So come home running
His arms are open wide
His name is Jesus
He understands
He is the answer
You are looking for
So come home running
Just as you are
Oh child of God so dearly loved
And ransomed by the Savior’s blood
And called by name, daughter and son
Wrapped in the robe of righteousness
Oh, Child of God, so dearly loved. Come home running, just as you are! You and I are dearly loved. Have you ever experienced God’s love in this way? Who shared that love with you? Have you experienced this radical acceptance and forgiveness in your own life? Maybe it was the forgiveness of a parent or significant other, a co-worker or friend. We all need to feel this kind of forgiveness in life, even if it is only the forgiveness that God gives to us. This kind of forgiveness and acceptance leads us to come home running.
On this Independence Day weekend, we celebrate our freedom as a nation, but we should also our spiritual freedom, won for us by Jesus. Being able to celebrate our religious freedom and worship God is one of the freedoms that our forebears won for us. This holiday weekend, find some way to worship God and give God thanks for all the freedoms that we enjoy!
God is good, all the time, and all the time, God is good.
