I've never liked fireworks. My neck begins to ache after about a half an hour and I begin to develop a headache from the booms before that. Yes they are beautiful but I can enjoy the effects of a simple kaleidoscope even more. I do go to fireworks displays on occasion because my wife likes them, and this past New Years Eve was one such day. It was cold and raining and I think that was the evening that I lost a $500 pair of eyeglasses. My toes were numb, my neck ached and my head throbbed but it turned out to be a special evening because of some of the thoughts that came to me that elicit great hope even today 28 days later.
They're all the same, fireworks displays that is, as a single rocket is launched and the crowd gives a soft 'ooh'. Another rocket is launched and another 'ooh.' The rockets come a little faster and before long two or three rockets are launched at the same time. If I'm fortunate...it's a short show....but it never seems that I'm fortunate....and I'm glad that I wasn't fortunate on this past New Years Eve. Maybe forty minutes into the show there was a pause and everyone knew what was next. Now I don't know how many rockets are launched in a typical finale or even how many rockets are launched during the whole show but the finale is always the highlight of these fireworks displays and even I tend to like them.
Throughout the evening in question my mind was where it always seems to be....on our nation that is on the brink of God's judgement....on the church that does not quite grasp this....and on the multitudes who need to know an accurate version of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love to look into people's faces when they're not looking at me. Are they hurting? Are they happy? Do they know Jesus Christ, and if not have they any idea that they are eternally lost?
Somehow....somehow I associated the brightness of the rocket bursts with an individual soul being born again. You see this is not as many imagine it. One must try to wrap their minds around an eternal soul that is dead. This is not an oxymoron...eternal...but dead...for the soul is dead in that it cannot have faith to live. When a soul....an eternal soul.... is regenerated it must of necessity excite more energy than even the splitting of the atom. I'm writing figuratively here to demonstrate that even one soul saved can easily be likened to a fireworks rocket's burst. The light must be brighter than the sun....and the thunderous voice of God saying...upon faith proclaimed from a regenerate soul....'your sins are forgiven'....must drown out the most powerful even deafening roar of fireworks rockets.
This is what I was thinking when the finale came. Boom...boom...boom....I can't type at the speed that they came. I could see a time in the future....hopefully the near future...when with power greater than an interstellar storm the Holy Spirit will display...His own finale....and many will be Jews who will see....not only their Messiah....but their God.
So this is what I envisioned in the grand finale on that cold and rainy evening. I may even look forward to the next opportunity to go to a fireworks display.
addendum: I didn't write this because of our evening watching fireworks or even my thoughts that night. I wrote it to put into the mind of to whom it may concern that the enormity of salvation is such that if one is not every day aware of what had transpired then that one must find out why....without delay.
also: upon reading this post my wife informed me that fireworks displays are not as long as I described them. Hmm...they sure seem that long.
They're all the same, fireworks displays that is, as a single rocket is launched and the crowd gives a soft 'ooh'. Another rocket is launched and another 'ooh.' The rockets come a little faster and before long two or three rockets are launched at the same time. If I'm fortunate...it's a short show....but it never seems that I'm fortunate....and I'm glad that I wasn't fortunate on this past New Years Eve. Maybe forty minutes into the show there was a pause and everyone knew what was next. Now I don't know how many rockets are launched in a typical finale or even how many rockets are launched during the whole show but the finale is always the highlight of these fireworks displays and even I tend to like them.
Throughout the evening in question my mind was where it always seems to be....on our nation that is on the brink of God's judgement....on the church that does not quite grasp this....and on the multitudes who need to know an accurate version of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love to look into people's faces when they're not looking at me. Are they hurting? Are they happy? Do they know Jesus Christ, and if not have they any idea that they are eternally lost?
Somehow....somehow I associated the brightness of the rocket bursts with an individual soul being born again. You see this is not as many imagine it. One must try to wrap their minds around an eternal soul that is dead. This is not an oxymoron...eternal...but dead...for the soul is dead in that it cannot have faith to live. When a soul....an eternal soul.... is regenerated it must of necessity excite more energy than even the splitting of the atom. I'm writing figuratively here to demonstrate that even one soul saved can easily be likened to a fireworks rocket's burst. The light must be brighter than the sun....and the thunderous voice of God saying...upon faith proclaimed from a regenerate soul....'your sins are forgiven'....must drown out the most powerful even deafening roar of fireworks rockets.
This is what I was thinking when the finale came. Boom...boom...boom....I can't type at the speed that they came. I could see a time in the future....hopefully the near future...when with power greater than an interstellar storm the Holy Spirit will display...His own finale....and many will be Jews who will see....not only their Messiah....but their God.
So this is what I envisioned in the grand finale on that cold and rainy evening. I may even look forward to the next opportunity to go to a fireworks display.
addendum: I didn't write this because of our evening watching fireworks or even my thoughts that night. I wrote it to put into the mind of to whom it may concern that the enormity of salvation is such that if one is not every day aware of what had transpired then that one must find out why....without delay.
also: upon reading this post my wife informed me that fireworks displays are not as long as I described them. Hmm...they sure seem that long.
