"Heavy"

I saw this picture of soldier recruits carrying the Statue of Liberty to the tune "She's Heavy" (Movie: Across the Universe) and was absolutely captivated by the message it portayed. The weight of responsibility felt by those who procure our freedom is often times overlooked and we are de-sensitized to it's true meaning by commercialism and over- exposure.

I was reminded of the heaviness of the burden of these six young men aging 18-24 years to stake a claim in the name of freedom on a tiny island. 3 died, 3 came home. Appx. 7000 gave thier lives at Iwo Jima and only 27 boys came home who ever stepped foot there. The cost of a country's freedom in this historical event came at a high price for most of these boys, children who were scared and yet duty-bound to fight.

And yet no greater burden was ever carried than that of the innocent Man, Jesus, His Father's only Son, to purchase the lives of an unworthy people at the price of His own. People who may never understand the true cost of freedom, who will mock the sacrifice offered in love, spit in the face of the greatest gift they could ever receive and crucify the the very One who won their right to claim any human, civil or ammendment "rights".

What has your freedom cost you? Do you care? Someone did and still does. Do you know Him? His name is Jesus. He bought our freedom. He paid the debt you and I owed to set us free from slavery to sin and death. Our cost? Receiving it!