1 Chronicles 27-29; Psalm 68: Freedoms aren’t free. They come with a price that someone before you paid. As we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day again I was reminded that even the freedoms we enjoy in our nation, freedoms so many seem ready to give up quickly because it will cost them something. Those freedoms came at the cost of life for many. Those lives were brothers, sisters, mommas, daddies, and each of them chose to give their lives so that we could live with the freedoms some today would like to take.
In our reading today David’s military leadership is listed. The heads of families are listed, and then David himself is listed as preparing his son and later generations for building a house for God. This generation to come would have freedom to worship as they were led. They would have a temple built by them but paid for by those who valued the God they served. All the next generation had to do was serve the Lord with a whole heart and obey His commands.
Is that not like us in so many ways? We have the freedom to worship afforded by our forefathers who have given their lives. We have beautiful buildings and places of worship. All we are called up to do is keep them in good repair and fill them as we worship with a whole heart obeying what God has called us to do. And yet many choose even before Covid to stay home, go when convenient, obey God when it doesn’t go against our own desires. I pray that one thing this Covid time has done for us all is to help us realize what we truly cherish. I know it has for me. I GET to go to church. I GET to gather with other believers. I treasure the gift of freedom of worship that even now some states are trying to take due to the virus. This Memorial Day I am even more grateful for the freedoms I have because of every life that was given. Today my act of worship is to express gratitude to God and to those who have given so that we might live free.