Freedom is

I was sitting here, sipping coffee and thinking about freedom. As I did, I stared out the window and noticed this adorable little bird hopping around the carport. Hopping here, flapping wings there, hopping around and around the rocking chairs we've carried with us since my mother died more than five years ago.

We yack about freedom a lot in this country, but we rarely, I think, give it proper thought. Just what does it mean to be free? Is it freedom is you owe so much money you can't do anything but work your whole life? Is it freedom is you're so worried about paying for what you've bought that you can't stop to not only smell the roses but plant them in the first place.

The bird has called friends in. They obviously think there is some sort of sustenance around the chairs. As far as I know, there is not, but still they hope and they hop.

Freedom, the Bible says "it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

What on earth (and in heaven) can that mean? It means simply that Christ/God allows us to make these incredibly dumb choices. We can choose, literally choose, to go the wrong way on all the choices or we can choose, literally choose, to use his tremendous free council to make good ones. We can choose the law, Paul would say, which we can't possibly keep, or we can choose His grace. The choice, is free.

We are free individuals, scripture says. "For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God."

Do you feel that way this morning? As we go off to shoot fireworks and such, do you feel free and glorified?

That's your choice. That's the freedom that God gave us all, even before we knew it. That's prevenient grace, justifying grace and sanctifying grace. We can cut off the flow anytime we choose.

I truly know little in this lifetime, except this one over-arching principal. Jesus came "“  to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free..."

He gave my freedom to me. He gave me the good news. He gave me sight. He set me free. He set me free.

The little bird has been joined by a crowd, flying hither and yon. They are so free...