Freedom

I meant to post this on the 4th, but it's still July, right?

     I am so grateful for this land we live in.  American is truly a great country.  I am so thankful for our founding fathers.  Of course they weren't perfect, but they did something amazing with the Lord's help.  So often we forget how lucky we are to live here - to live and worship as we desire.  

     When I was about 15, I had a profound experience that helped me appreciate, in a new way, the freedoms we enjoy.  My brother and I were lucky enough to join our parents on a Mediterranean cruise.  My father was a guest speaker for a convention being held on the ship and we were able reap the benefits of a great vacation while he worked.  

   Two of the stops were in the Ukraine.  At that time the Ukraine was part of the USSR and under communist control (those were the days of the Iron Curtain).  There was a Russian family aboard the ship who had escaped from the USSR many years before through bribing top officials.  They had been told by communists officials that, as a consequence, they would never again be able to come back or see their families left behind.  

    This family had communicated to their family in Russia when they would be at those ports.  They were hoping that the port officials in the Ukraine would not be as thorough in searching their documents and that they would be reunited with their families once again.  Unfortunately, the USSR Custom Officers would not let the Russian family leave the boat.  

    I will never forget standing on the dock and seeing the two families crying and reaching out to one another - one group from the boat railings and the other standing behind a chain link fence on the dock.  In those moments, I learned what freedom really was and what communism was not.  

    Every day, I try to be thankful to our founding fathers, to those who have died to preserve our freedoms, and mostly our God, for this great United States of America.