On July 4, 1776, Thomas Jefferson and 55 others signed a Declaration of Independence from the King of England. Their resolve began with these words,
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to for one people to dissolve the political bands that have connected them to another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…
These words along with the list of grievances against the king and mother country describe the independence and national freedoms that were won in the Revolutionary War that followed. According to Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia an estimated 25,000 American soldiers died in the war, 8,000 in battle and another 17,000 from disease.
230 years later the US and England are arms-length allies; American citizens are divided over the policies of our own government; we disagree among ourselves what “unalienable rights” are “self-evident” and whether a drafter and signer deist like Thomas Jefferson ever intended the reference to “our Creator” to be thought of as the basis for a “Christian nation.”
Yet, these issues, like our national independence, as important and as duly celebrated as they may be, are of little significance compared to the citizenship that requires us to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to our eternal King and Savior what belongs to Him (Phi 3:20; Matt 22:21).
While it might seem hard to believe, before long, it won’t matter whether we have been citizens of America, Brazil, China, or Denmark. What will matter is a more important story of independence and freedom…
foreshadowed by the Exodus of a family nation from the slave-yards of Egypt…
and ultimately fulfilled by the voluntary death of the King of kings… who died and rose from the dead… to give us a life that will never end…
a pursuit of happiness with no regret…a citizenship that includes people from every nation… in the embrace of a liberty and justice that will never end…. when the fireworks of this weekend are over…
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