250 Years of Freedom—and One Very Teary Brit

By Ellis White, Senior Pastor

I must have been seven or eight years old, standing in a playground in England, talking with some friends about the United States. I don’t remember exactly what was said. But I remember the feeling—this quiet, almost inexplicable sense that one day I would live there.

Thirty-something years later, I stood in a government building in Tukwila, raised my right hand, and became a citizen of the United States of America.

I did not expect to cry. But when we sang the national anthem, I completely lost it.

Tomorrow, this nation turns 250. That is worth pausing over. Two and a half centuries of an experiment in freedom that has shaped the world. And I get to be part of it. That still doesn’t feel real to me.

But here’s what I’ve been sitting with as I think about tomorrow.

Political freedom is a remarkable gift. And yet the deepest freedom any of us can experience isn’t found in a declaration or a constitution. Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” (Galatians 5:1 NIV) The freedom Jesus offers isn’t freedom from a government or an empire—it’s freedom from the things that truly enslave us: fear, guilt, shame, the relentless pressure to earn our own worth.

That’s the freedom worth celebrating most.

So as you watch the fireworks tomorrow night—and I hope you do—I want to encourage you to do something simple. Let them be a prompt. As the sky lights up over Gig Harbor, take a moment to give thanks. Not just for this nation, extraordinary as it is, but to the One who gives every good gift. Give the praise and the glory to Jesus—for the freedom he purchased, for the country you get to call home, and for the grace that makes every day worth living.

I’m genuinely grateful to be here. Grateful to be your pastor. And grateful for a childhood dream that, somehow, came true.

Happy Fourth of July.

Pastor Ellis