Devotional
Posted: 07/02/2026
As we prepare to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Independence of the United States, we reflect on the undying values of liberty and justice upon which our great country was founded.
From time to time, things happen that cause us to pause and reassess what we once knew as conventional and unchangeable values. They compel us to adjust and realign our perspectives on what we believed life to be. Today, liberty and justice mean different things to different people, which may be radically different from what the Founding Fathers thought them to be. Yet, at their core, these are the values that continue to make the United States the greatest country in the world.
Liberty and justice probably meant very different things to Reedley farmer Cesar Mora, a third-generation American of Mexican heritage, and to the Russian daredevil couple Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, both of whom recently made national headlines.
Cesar is a California farmer with more than 30 years of experience who has been locked in a legal battle with a Big Ag company, preventing him from harvesting his nectarine orchards for the past two years. This year, he decided to give away 125,000 pounds of fresh nectarines to community members through a protest campaign called “No Nectarines Wasted.”
Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, on the other hand, risked their lives by scaling the 1,454-foot spire of the Empire State Building to display a banner conveying a message of love and peace as the Russia-Ukraine war continues: "When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace."
These two unrelated events on the East and West Coasts of the United States affirm an important truth that makes the 250th Anniversary of American Independence worth celebrating. Even when we face what we perceive to be injustice and limitations on our freedom, we are still free to respond. We are free to express our protest, our disagreement, and our convictions. The greatest tool we have to fight for freedom is freedom itself, which at times may feel constrained but can never be completely taken away: the freedom to live, the freedom to die, and the freedom to rise from the dead.
God bless the United States of America and all those who continue the pursuit of liberty and justice for all.
