Freedom Is Not Free by Kristie M Ledford
I can see and hear the parade moving down the street as red, white and blue flags are being waved by thousands of smiling spectators. It is the fourth of July and many Americans will celebrate our freedom by attending parades, picnics, family cookouts and ending the day with a beautiful fireworks display across the dark, starry night. We sing patriotic songs such as God Bless The USA, The Star Spangled Banner and America. However, do we realize the high price which millions of soldiers and civilians have paid for this very freedom we enjoy? They have paid with their lives and their loved ones have sacrificed a great deal too.
My daddy was a United States Army infantry soldier in WWII. I was only 10 years old when he died but vividly remember the stories he used to tell about the war. When my mother was pregnant with me in 1971 my daddy asked my mother to transcribe one of his stories about his captivity. You see, he was captured by the Nazi’s when his Army division was overtaken. I read his story as an adult which had a much greater impact on me. Then two years after my conversion, I read his story again with my new, born again eyes. As a result, the poem below was written in memory of my daddy who was and always will be my Brave Soldier.
Brave Soldier
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
I was in the 106th US Army division;
Battle of the Bulge they named this collision.
We ran completely out of ammunition;
The Germans kept firing with bloody aggression.
Firing point blank into my fox hole;
Knowing I must be a dead soul.
I climbed out breaking my rifle around a tree;
Giving me nowhere to flee.
Captured now and a prisoner of war;
Having no idea what was in store.
Some of the men were ordered to lay down.
The Tiger Tanks crushing them into the ground.
I was herded into a cattle car;
Thanking God I’d made it this far.
I was beaten, kicked, stomped, spit on and starved;
Being mocked to my grave.
I had now become a German slave;
What humiliation this gave.
I was a solider sent there to fight;
We felt the Jewish people had a right.
A right to live and be free;
Since they are just like me.
You ask, “How can this be?”
Just one moment, you can see.
My right boot I did remove;
The Holy Bible is here which shall prove.
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 3:22,23
I wrote this poem trying to imagine what my daddy must have been feeling. A young man only twenty years old, shipped off to Europe. He had been trained to fight for his life and for the freedom of his country. He was one of fourteen children born and raised in the Coffee Ridge mountain community of Upper East Tennessee. His daddy was a farmer and his mother was a devout woman of God.
His mother gave him a little red New Testament Bible. She had written a beautiful letter to her son on the inside covers. His mother said to keep the Bible with him at all times and not to forget what he had been taught. My daddy said the only safe place he found to keep the Bible was in his right boot. The Nazi’s killed all soldiers who were found with a Holy Bible on them. By God’s divine hand my daddy and the little red New Testament made it home to Tennessee.
Just as the soldiers have paid and still pay very high prices for defending our Nation thus instilling our freedom; Jesus paid a very high price for our Spiritual freedom and eternal life. His life, death and resurrection were not just for one nation but for the world. No one has ever paid such a price as our precious Savior……nor will they ever. The Jewish Christians paid a very high price to take the Gospel into the Gentile nations. It was through the sacrifices and faithfulness of the Jewish people that we came to hear about Jesus. Ro 11:11-24 Over the centuries, countless Christian men and women from every nation have died and been imprisoned for taking the freedom of the Gospel message into this lost, captive world.
So, I ask you to consider this great privilege of freedom which has been offered you. Freedom is not free but…… eternal life in Jesus Christ is. The price was paid for you.