The greatest export from the United States is not aboard superfreighters that ply the oceans nor is it something that fills the bellies of aircraft that constantly load and unload goods across the globe. It is not to be found in the billions of financial transactions that move massive sums from this place to that. There is no accounting for it in the Gross Domestic Product or on any of the stock exchanges or stacked in warehouses. It is the noble concept of liberty.
It was the idea of liberty that fired the patriot zeal in 1776, that endured the wintry blast of Valley Forge, that birthed a republic of free people. Liberty dictated that the centuries old institution of slavery could not endure and it was liberty that demanded that an oppressed race stand tall to dine on that feast called freedom.
Believing that liberty was never meant for a single country, young men and women who never thought to leave their hometown much less their country assaulted beaches, dropped from the skies, dove under the sea and slogged through swamp and desert. Some never lived to see their hometown again or feel the warmth of a mother’s hug. Others left behind a part of themselves, returning with shattered bodies and damaged minds. But liberty drove them there and kept them fighting, all with the hope of leaving the gift of freedom behind when they came home.
The concept of liberty is grounded in a gospel that teaches that though people are chained by sin, deliverance is our destiny, salvation our heritage. Hear the challenge and the promise: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1). So then, in Christ be free.