Op-Ed: FREEDOM’S PERFECT SOUND
By Van Yandell
We love hearing our national anthem played. To see the American Olympic athletes win gold and stand on the podium to receive their medals makes our hearts swell with pride.
To watch an American president place his hand over his heart and stand at attention for the playing of the “Star Spangled Banner” gives a feeling of victory and protection.
Our precious flag is respected by the world. To say the United States of America is the greatest nation that ever existed may be controversial to some, but in many minds, it is reality.
Many of us remember when TV stations began the day and ended it with the national anthem and a picture of the American flag.
The story of the writing of “The Star Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key should touch the heart of every freedom loving American. Written September 14, 1814, Key was on a British truce ship in the Chesapeake Bay.
Key was inspired after watching a massive American flag continue to fly over Baltimore’s Fort McHenry following a relentless 25-hour bombardment by the British Royal Navy during the War of 1812.
Many have died protecting that flag and our gratitude cannot be measured. Our respect for them cannot be compared. The sounds of “the bombs bursting in air” still ring loud in their ears.
The horrors of war will never end for those that fought. Many came home missing limbs and thousands of others came home in body bags.
The following is an excerpt from an article I published several years ago entitled “The Sounds of Freedom.” It is as applicable now as then and a tribute to our 250th anniversary as a nation.
“Out for my morning hike, I passed by an office building. There was a sloped area along the road and it was grown up with grass and small trees. Realizing I was hearing a sound that was unusual, I stopped and looked into the brushy area but saw no sign of life.
It sounded small; possibly like a chipmunk or maybe even an armadillo; but nothing! Starting up my walk, the sound started again. What could that sound possibly be?
Finally, realizing there was a flagpole in the yard of the building, the sound was obviously the American flag blowing in the breeze. My heart almost exploded; what a beautiful sound the flag was making and I did not recognize it! The sounds of freedom at times fall on deaf ears.
We fail to stop and say “Thank you Lord for this great country and allowing me to be here, a citizen of the great United States of America.” Freedom and being an American are among our greatest blessings.
We hear sounds every day of our lives that verify our freedom.
Printing presses running are a sound of freedom. Freedom of the press is precious and must be preserved even though it has been perverted by the politically corrupt. A free press is essential to a republic in that the people have a “right to know.”
The sound of children pledging allegiance to the flag is a sound of freedom. The sounds of a high school football game or the academic team competing with other schools teams are sounds of freedom. The clip-clop of an Amish buggy is a sound of freedom.
The sound of the Star Spangled Banner playing at a veteran activity is a sound of freedom. The veterans have paid a very high price for our freedoms of speech, the press, assembly, and many others. They deserve the best of everything this country has to offer; without them, there would be no country.
There are 172 national cemeteries with an undetermined number of graves because the number changes daily. In Arlington National Cemetery alone there are over 400,000 graves. The sound of silence in these is a sound of freedom that is deafening.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” This statement by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1, tells us of a purpose of Christ’s crucifixion. By His sacrificial death, mankind has freedom from the “yoke of sin” the world had previously experienced.
From the writing of the Ten Commandments until Christ’s resurrection, the Jewish people had lived under the burden of being human but being expected to adhere to those commandments of God. Their atonement/redemption came by offering a blood sacrifice on the altar (Hebrews 9: 22). The laws for offering the sacrifice are stated in Leviticus and Deuteronomy in the Old Testament.
Then came Christ Jesus! The sounds of the Roman soldier’s hammer driving the nails into our Jesus’ hands and feet were sounds of the freedom He offered us by bleeding, suffering and dying for our sins. The sound of the stone being rolled away to allow Him to exit the tomb, resurrected and alive, was a sound of freedom.
Have we as a people, both Americans and Christians, tuned out those sounds and taken what we have for granted? Obviously, it was not granted easily. The prices paid were enormous. We think of the dead military men and women but they had families; mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers that also suffered immeasurably at their loss.
Their sacrifice set us free from an oppressive government. It is for freedom from sin that Christ has set us free. Only by forgiveness of sin based on His cleansing blood (1 John 1: 9) may we be saved. The suffering of Jesus is unimaginable in today’s world of medicines/painkillers.
Are there words to express how precious freedom is? If there are, I do not know them. These great treasures of being an American as well as salvation through a crucified and resurrected Christ Jesus are priceless. Don’t take them lightly.
As you go through the day, the week and the year, listen for the sounds. The flapping of the flag on a breezy morning really caught my attention and I pray those sounds will command your attention.”
Van Yandell is a retired Industrial Arts teacher, an ordained gospel evangelist and commissioned missionary. His email is vmy3451@gmail.com