OK, to be fair, I'm not talking about the really big ones the city blows up in the sky, I'm talking about the other ones. you know.
the ones you buy on the side of the road, that you light and it burns into a little caterpillar on the ground, or makes some sparks and lights up for a bit.. you know, the dumb ones.
And yet, as much as I want to demean these poor ignitable entertainers, I cannot help but notice that SO MANY PEOPLE love these things! Small children love them, teenagers love them (some of the students were even trying to get me to BUY them fireworks tonight... ) and you know you've seen an old man chasing his elderly wife around the back yard with a sparkler.
I have never understood the drawing power of these little things, because to me they aren't even COMPARABLE to the incredible grandeur and awe-inspiring speechlessness that is instilled by the REALLY big ones.
Remember what it felt like, as a kid, to be sitting in the grass and to see one of the BIG ones go off and completely fill the night sky? do you remember the thud of sound that hit you a split-second afterwards that threatened to knock the wind out of you? The mixture of applause and groans as the finale ends, and you and everyone else around you has a smile wide across your faces?
How in the world could something as small as a sparkler even COMPARE to these giants?
I was listening to a song called "How Great" by David Crowder* Band the other day, and one line stuck out to me (as it always does):
I'm so bored of
little gods while
standing on the edge of
something large, while
standing here so close to You.
we could be consumed.
I remember thinking about this, and going over how many small, tiny things become to incredibly important to us that they take our entire attention and concentration from God and place it on other things- and, on top of that, how easily entertained we are by these little, passing, miniscule things while we sit on the threshold of the Almighty One.
Do we not know who our God is?
Do we not understand that He is the very God that spoke into existence EVERYTHING, that said light and light SHOT out of his mouth? That He holds the entire universe in the breadth of his hand, and yet is small enough to hold and comfort a hurting friend? That He spoke and storms stilled before him, and another time heard the cries of his people and came walking to them on the water?
THIS is who our God is- and in light of Him, NOTHING can compare in the slightest! And yet, slowly our attention gets driven to something else. To someone else. It's as if we are standing in the midst of an incredible fireworks display and our attention gets taken from the sky and given to a small sparkler, all the while the world is lighting up all around us.
This fourth of July, I pray that above the celebrating, above the food and the pyrotechnics, above the people you are with and the family that you love, that you pause for a moment and remember who your God is, and rejoice in His glow as his glory and greatness EXPLODE around you every second of every day.
Love you guys,
Josh
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