As America celebrates her birthday and hard-won independence today, let us reflect a little on the word ‘freedom.’ The Fourth of July this year is an odd one for the history books: no live fireworks, large picnic gatherings, or even concerts. For months now, most of us have lost the freedom to come and go as we please, to face the world without a mask covering, to grieve a dying loved one, or even to attend school in-person, all in the name of protecting the well-being and health of others around us.
God created us to be free and happy. But we cannot be happy if our freedom is hindered. God gave us free will, which meant we have the ability to choose what is good or not. But our choices – whether good or bad – have a consequence; they come with a responsibility. We understand this as we observe our first parents, Adam and Eve, and the choices they made: they chose to disobey God and they chose to eat the forbidden fruit. Their choices brought sin and death into the world, thus, tainting all of mankind. No freedom and no happiness.
We often hear that America is “the greatest country in the world.” But greatest in what? Ask around these days and you most certainly will get a multitude of answers.
By world standards, being the “greatest” seems to be on everyone’s goal list. Power, fame, wealth, status, achievement, you name it. Our culture’s insatiable appetite for flaunting the “best of the best” is hard to ignore; the message fills our air waves, news cycles, social media, television, magazines, even in little Susie’s violin classes.
What about God’s standards?
Even the disciples themselves grappled with who would be the “greatest” in heaven. What did Jesus say? “… unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3-4).
In our Lord’s eyes, achieving greatness in heaven means striving to live with the simple joy of a child.
It is in that simple spirit that I uncovered a long-forgotten memory in my childhood, where I experienced a taste of freedom but needed a bit of God’s grace to let go of an unexpected hurdle:
One day last summer, I strolled down the ice cream aisle at the local grocery store. Having done so many times before, this visit, however, was different. So many containers of sweet deliciousness dancing in my eyes! Instead of drooling over the myriad of flavors, I found myself standing behind the refrigerated doors and reminiscing. What was it?
It was the ice cream escapade with my brother as little children.
New York City, 1970s. Our dad was at work, mom was home with us little kids but she was sleeping on the job. What do active little children do when they are stuck in an upper floor apartment with nothing to do and the parent in charge is asleep?
They seek out fun and do not think about the consequences.
My little brother whispered that we should sneak out for ice cream and candy, treats well-loved by us but seldom allowed. I did not want to, but I could not let him go off by himself so I decided to tag along. I had to be responsible for us both.
Holding hands, we bravely crossed two city blocks to the nearest grocery store. Once inside, I pushed the shopping cart and we knew exactly where to go: the ice cream aisle.
Sweets Heaven, finally.
Carton after carton of ice cream was opened, our tiny little hands dipping inside each to sample a little here and there, then put them back. We helped ourselves to unlimited candy, even asking a fellow shopper to help with a box of cookies, unaware we were going to sample those too.
Happily indulging away, I noticed a young shopper at the cashier lane, who smiled and watched us in stunned disbelief, perhaps wondering where our parents were!
We kids did not have a single care in the world other than satisfying our sweet little teeth and relishing some freedom from the restraints of our home life. Our last memory? Sitting in the back seat of a police cruiser, being given a bag of circus peanuts candy as we were driven home, and the sight of our mom in hysterics because she feared the worst for us!
Needless to say, we never pulled another one like that ever again.
But as memories of our childhood escapade flooded my mind last summer, the news headlines at the same time reported of individuals as young as teenagers across the country committing various food and product tampering crimes including this one involving ice cream.
Yikes.
More than several decades have passed, yet a wave of guilt suddenly hit me. The last thing to even enter my mind would be the C word – crime.
Could my 5-year-old self be culpable too, I wondered? When I poured out my soul before the Lord on some of those hard questions, He filled me with His peace in return. He knew this whole story all along; He was there with us. In time, I was able to discern that the guilt I was feeling was the work of the Evil One and not from God Himself.
In God’s eyes, little children are free of sinful and malicious motives, pure, innocent, and trusting of all that is good, true and beautiful in this world. God challenges us to shed our adult pride and ego and to live life with the innocence of a little child.
The forces of the world tell us to achieve more, earn more, run faster, and be the best at all costs, but at the end of our earthly lives, what will they matter? “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mk 8:36). The lesson here? Living a life of childlike simplicity and humility will make us free and happy. It is what makes us greatest in God’s Kingdom.
My friends, as we fire up the grill, gather the family and friends (with social distancing), and take in the fireworks today in whatever televised or virtual format we can, may we rejoice in the love of that atmosphere and may all our choices be driven by the desire to seek and to do God’s will. Then we will truly experience freedom and happiness.
Photo by Kamala Saraswathi on Unsplash
