The Statute of Liberty was a gift from France. They planned to have it arrive in time to celebrate America’s one hundredth anniversary, but it arrived ten years late, in1886.  Its flaming torch has welcomed immigrants to our great country ever since. The famous inscription at the base of the statute was from a sonnet written by Emma Lazarus and attached to the stature in 1912.  It reads;

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

The Christian’s Statute of Liberty was a gift from God and arrived on time (Ga. 4:4). It is a wooden cross standing on a rocky hillside. It has offered freedom to sinners for 2,000 years (Jn. 8:36). Our symbol of God’s grace is a crown of thorns, our “flaming torch” of freedom the saving gospel message.   The inscription which draws the huddled masses here is; “Come unto me all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28).

-Dennis Doughty

(note: for all my Spelling Bee winners out there, according to my Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary,  “tost” is an acceptable, albeit seldom used today,  past tense form of “tossed”.)