Freedom

Do you hear the people sing? / Singing a song of angry men? / It is the music of a people / Who will not be slaves again! / When the beating of your heart / Echoes the beating of the drums. / There is a life about to start /When tomorrow comes! ~When Tomorrow Comes, Les Miserables

4th of July. 

To the rest of the world, this is just another day on the calender. No different than the 9th of March or the 24th of October. 

But to the United States of America, this day is monumental. 

Today we declared our freedom. 

Today we stood against the background of red, white, and blue, and took our place among the nations. 

We stepped from black and white to colour...from darkness to light...from candlelight to sparklers. 

We became the United States of America. 

But now, we are starting to fall back into our own habits. 

We are slipping from the light of freedom to the darkness of our own slavery.

We are not under the dominion of the King of England anymore...but nor are we allowing ourselves to be under the reign of the ultimate Holy King. We have switched from rebelling against the laws of man to pushing our backs against the laws of God. 

We have fallen so in love with freedom that we have fallen out of love with the One who held our hands and guided us here in the first place. 

If we try to erase God from every cornerstone of our nation's foundation, we will grind the stones to nothing and leave us in a pile of rubble.

Lives were lost and the streams ran red with blood to make our country free.

One life was lost and His heart was pierced to make our souls free.

We must never separate the two. 

If these two threads untangle, our freedom will unravel. 

"One nation under God." 

Photo by Abigail Dahl
PinkStudios Photography

In Him, we are free. 

Without Him, we are lost. 

So tonight,as lemonade mingles with the ice cubes in our glasses and watermelon juice drips down your chin...

...as the anthem plays and the star-spangled banner flutters in the breeze... 

...as sparklers flash and fireworks explode against the backdrop of the midnight sky...

...never forget the ones who died to give us this freedom, and never forget the One who died to give us the ultimate freedom.

Embrace your freedom,

but cling to Him.  

Do you hear the people sing? / Lost in the valley of the night / It is the music of a people who are climbing to the light / For the wretched of the earth there is a flame that never dies / Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise. / They will live again in freedom in the garden of the Lord. / They will walk behind the plough-share / they will put away the sword. / The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward...~Epilogue, Les Miserables 

(I did a guest post today over at The Cupcake Dictionary, which you can read here.)

Citrus

Orange eclipse, I can taste your lips / In the citrus afternoon / If you can fly, don't stop at the sky / 'Cause there's footprints on the Moon ~Owl City, Yacht Club


This was a very citrus afternoon. 


After juicing all those limes yesterday, it was little to no work at all to combine their lip-puckering sweetness with a few other ingredients. 


Two key lime pies now sit in my refrigerator, patiently awaiting their raspberry-syrup-and-whipped-creme-topped debut at tomorrow's family 4th of July celebration. 


(If you want the recipe I used, check out Olivia's blog here. For my own lime-juicing adventures, check out yesterday's post!)


Summer and citrus truly do go hand in hand. 


Lemonade on a sultry hot day, sitting on a porch swing with your best friend, laughing and sipping your tart beverage as the ice clinks gently against the glass...


...a sweet lemon ice and fresh raspberry smoothie, toes wiggling just under the surface of a relative's swimming pool, the breeze blowing just enough to cool your skin and ruffle your hair...


...and yes, even a slice of fresh, homemade key lime pie on the 4th of July, enjoying the sour-sweet firework show occurring on your tongue, a delightful precursor to the firework show coming when the sun finally slips below the horizon and the American sky goes navy blue. 


Perhaps I will forever associate my own patriotism with the aroma and taste of key lime pie, and with the feel of fingers made wrinkling by the acidic juice sinking into my skin. 

One of my own finished pies
Photo by DramticElegance

Perhaps summer will always be citrus fireworks to me.


Perhaps that is how it should be.


Because isn't that what summer is, really?


A combination of the bitter and sweet...moments of joy as lifetime memories are made, and outstretched fingers of heartbreak as so many things change. 


Summer is tart and acidic. 


Beautiful and full of sweetness and life. 


Summer is citrus.


And that's how it will always be. 


I wish that we could sail our sad days away / Forever / In deep blue seas of paper mâché / Let's dance in the moonlight / A barracuda chased our dog days away / Forever / Let's sink or swim 'til we fall in love / And dance in the moonlight / When we join the yacht club. ~Owl City, Yacht Club