Riding my jet ski early Monday morning, June 30, I spot a bald eagle flying with liberty over the tree tops.
I notice the distinct wing style turning north up the lake. I hit the gas on my SeaDoo GTI Limited and take off in pursuit. Suddenly, I’m following the USA’s proud emblem of liberty across the most beautiful lake in Texas.
I marvel at the stately white head, which is like a beacon against the deepest blue.
The body and wings are cloaked in feathers like a moonless night against the frost-white plumes above the steel-like talons.
The bald eagle flies fearlessly to reach new heights.
Do you?
Here are three fresh thoughts about liberty.
1. Implement your Dream
July 4 is the only U.S. holiday that commemorates the start of a war.
Other holidays revolve around ending wars.
- Memorial Day
- Veterans Day
However, on July 4, we celebrate the Declaration of Independence, a manifesto declaring liberty.
- All men are created equal.
- All are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Clearly, the architects of American liberty wrote better than they practiced, like we often do, because freedom and liberty are a living thing. It has to be redefined, reexplained, and expanded.
But it is the dream that counts, and the implementation of that dream into our actions that makes the world better.
Watching this eagle soar over the lake makes me ask myself: How am I inspiring liberty for others?
2. Roots of Liberty
Many immigrants in the early days were from England, Ireland, Italy, and Jewish backgrounds.
Emma Lazarus, the poet who wrote the inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty, was born in New York City, and her family had Portuguese Sephardic Jewish roots.
Here is the last stanza of her famous poem.
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free.
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these: the homeless and the tempest tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Where does mankind’s innate desire for freedom and liberty come?
I believe it comes from God.
The biblical precedent of freedom dates back thousands of years to the time when Moses stood before Pharaoh in an epocal way and said, “Let my people go.”
3. You are God’s Tattoo
You can live in a land of freedom like the USA and still be a slave.
A slave to hopelessness from your past or present.
But God’s remedy is life-altering.
“I will not forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” Isaiah 49:15-16
I met a guy once who worked in a tattoo parlor, and I asked him what tattoos folks put on their bodies.
He said it’s usually something or someone they love.
“Can tattoos be erased?” “Yes,” he said, “but they’ll leave a scar.” Then I asked, “What’s the most painful part of the body to tattoo?” He said, “Not the face. Not the privates. But, the palms of the hands and the tops of the feet.”
Suddenly, I thought about the biblical phrase, “By his stripes we are healed.”
Healed from hopelessness. Healed from despair.
Jesus was not tattooed with antiseptic needles. He was tattooed with nails to get our names on the palms of his hands.
This summer, look to the heavens and see the Creator’s works declaring that He loves you.
He loves you and wants to set you free.