Freedom

As I look to Memorial Day, this word is on my mind, this idea, Freedom.  
What comes to mind when you see this word, or hear it?  Personally, I picture Mel Gibson in Braveheart screaming at the top of his lungs with all the fiery passion of a Scottish warrior about to pay the ultimate price for this beautiful and expensive word, but that's just me.  Maybe I think of that because I love Scotland or maybe just because in that moment there is such pained belief and untethered passion that I cannot help but feel it as well and yearn for it at any cost.  And costly it is.....The idea of freedom is so beautiful; free to choose and go and do as you please, but it is not a cheap idea or one any of us should take for granted, because where it resides, death and sacrifice have preceded it and bled for it.  You see, this freedom, requires a fight and it is not gentle or for the faint-hearted, but for a hero.  Many of us have been blessed to know a hero or two in our own lives and they are wonderful, but, there is an ultimate Hero that all can know, Jesus.  He died a horrible death on a Roman cross so that I could be free to love and to live with abandon and it is Him I choose to worship.  Jesus is the only perfect hero and it is within Him that all freedom truly exists, but I am so thankful that He places imperfect and willing heroes within our midst as well.  It isn't easy to remember that He is the real hero of my life because I am a hopeless romantic, when it comes to the idea of a hero! I am a sucker for any book, movie or tv show portraying a hunky guy who somehow manages to be a mighty warrior and a kind, gentle lover of an equally heroic and beautiful maiden....and then I think, yuck, where's my drink? and my reality check? 
The reality is that heroes are just men who are willing to take risk for others and they are not perfect, but they are amazing and they deserve our respect and admiration and support for all that they do with a willingness to serve.  And so, today as I look to Memorial Day, I say to Jesus first, thank you for giving me your life and your blood, your Holy Spirit to stay with me and guide me and then to all the service men and women out there who continue to serve and to those who have given some or all of themselves so that I may write this, thank you!   Although those words seem to fall forever short of the emotion behind them, your sacrifice does not go unnoticed and I pray we will never forget!  You are remembered, you are cherished and you are loved!