It was 1978. There were 16 young people with me. We had crossed the border from West Germany into East Germany at about five o’clock that morning. A Russian guide has boarded our bus and told us what sights we would like to see. She told us when we were hungry, and where we would like to eat. She told us when we wanted to stretch our legs, which happened to be late in the afternoon after we had been up since two-thirty in the morning. She became our guide in a way that gave new meaning to that term.

While we were in East Germany, the youth group and I experienced the same type of things which I had seen the year before — heavily armed policemen at every corner, very little conversation in restaurants and other indoor places, a solemness about the people and the community itself. It was a situation which was controlled. The word “control” was the key to understanding life in the Eastern Bloc of communist nations at that point in history.

When we returned to West Germany at the end of the day, after passing through a number of checkpoints, we saw that the final sign announced our arrival in West Germany. The young people erupted into cheers, applause and laughter which had been under control during the previous 16 hours. Suddenly, they had a new appreciation of the word “freedom.”

When I returned to my pulpit following that trip, it was the weekend of the Fourth of July. I preached on independence, and celebrated what it meant to me to live in a free country — and particularly in the United States of America.

Having told you that little story, let me add that the basic event of the Old Testament is the liberation of the Jewish people. The journey into the Promised Land is the central and foundational event of the Book of Faith which we claim as God’s word to the Jews and to Christians.

From slavery to freedom. From oppression to liberation. That is the theme of God’s word to the people of the world. While the Fourth of July is a nationalistic holiday, it is, nevertheless, symbolic of the fact that Jesus declared, quoting Isaiah, that he came “to proclaim liberty to captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”

He came to set us free.

The Easter celebration, which Christians lift up throughout the year, reminds us that we are set free from our sins, and particularly from the penalty which justice demands. Celebrate your freedom this Fourth of July. Thank God that you have been set free.

Let us pray: We acknowledge your gift of mercy which replaces justice. You set us free when we have not earned freedom. You bless us when we deserve condemnation. You love us when we act in unlovable ways. Help us to accept and celebrate your gift of freedom. Amen.

Our thought for the day is this: Real freedom is a gift of God.

Dr. David L. Glusker is pastor of First Radio Parish Church of America, 1 Congress Square, Portland 04101. “Daily Devotions” is broadcast at 6:15 a.m. weekdays and 6:55 a.m. weekends on WLBZ-TV and WCSH-TV.