Independence Day

Today is known as Independence Day in the United States of America.* The Declaration of Independence, ratified on July 4, 1776, by fifty-six members of the Second Continental Congress, declared —and explained— why the thirteen American colonies considered themselves free of British rule.

Yes, I’d say that freedom runs deep in my American veins, but it runs deeper than nationality. Freedom is a human issue.

Human beings can’t function without freedom any more than a flag can fly without wind. Have you heard the freedom story of Edith Eva Eger? She survived the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War.

At the camp, her parents died in the Nazi gas chambers. But that was just the beginning of the horrors: a prison guard broke the girl’s back.

Then she endured a death march through Austria.

By the end of the war, Edith had wasted down to seventy pounds (thirty-two kilograms). She was left for dead on a pile of bodies.

But an American soldier saw her hand move, pulled her out, and called the medics. Edith lived to tell her story. Her message focuses on the freedom of choice —something she says cannot be stolen from a person.

Recalling how she nearly died of starvation in the camps, Edith said, “I chose to eat grass.” She sat on the ground, choosing one blade over another. She kept reminding herself that even amid these dire circumstances, she still had a choice —“which blade of grass I would eat.” Though others took everything from Edith, they still could not take her freedom. So today, in memory of the freedom our nation’s fathers died for and in memory of little Edith in the midst of hell on Earth, let’s celebrate freedom.

The enemy can take our peace, homes, health, livelihoods, and very lives. But God has built an impenetrable wall around the sanctum of the human will. Circumstances may devastate, yet the treasure of freedom will always be ours. It may not always be the freedom to do as we please; in fact, our human rights may be horribly violated. Yet because One was stripped of everything He had —and in love, hung on a cross for us— we, through Him, have the ultimate say over how we respond to the world around us. How have you used your freedom?

Jennifer Jill Schwirzer