July 4 is the birthday of our nation.  It is the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the document by which the American colonies declared their independence from British rule, which had become burdensome if not tyrannical.

This was, however, not an end but the beginning of a struggle for freedom that would last for more than seven years and cost many of the brave men who signed that document their comfortable homes, their land, their fortune, their children and — for some — their very lives. 

The men who met in Philadelphia that fateful day in 1776  to sign that document were not poor, malcontent scalawags.  These were men of means who risk everything to give us this nation where 

“all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …”

It is important to remember that, while these men were declaring their independence from Great Britain, they were also declaring their dependence on the God who created us.  And in case that was not clear enough in this declaration of rights, they closed the document in such a way that it could not be missed.

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred honor.”

The years that followed were difficult and victory would have been impossible without the direct intervention of the hand of God.  Those who doubt this simply do not know their history.  How else could a rag-tag army of colonists defeat the powerful British?  The miracles that followed are too numerous to mention such as the  blinding fog that allowed Washington’s men to escape from Brooklyn or just the right amount of snow and thaw on the icy Delaware River that paved the way for  — not one  — but three miraculous crossings. Continue reading “The Price of Freedom” →