Fireworks have
been used down through the ages to celebrate festivals and special events. Their bursts of explosions are anticipated
wonders during the Fourth of July
holidays as they make their announcements, whether with a loud sonic boom, a shrill
whistling noise, or a just a small sizzling sound. After that, comes a spectacular display of
lights in various shapes, rotating circles, or a blast of stars in all colors
illuminating across the sky turning the darkness into a brief blast of light.
They say the
first fireworks started in the 10th century in China, but I am not
so sure about that. You see when God
decided to divide the day from the night, He said, “Let there be lights in the
firmaments of the heaven.” I was not
there that day, but I can just imagine the loud explosion of activity as the
stars and the moon were set into place.
The sky must have lit up with a blast of sunbeams and a glow of stars
that did not just immediately fill up the sky and then fall away and disappear
like the fireworks we think of today. The
stars, the moon, and the sun are there, in place, for us to celebrate and enjoy
every night and day throughout the year.
There are all
kinds of fireworks God has provided that radiates across the sky and the
treetops. He set the rainbow in the
sky. As the last raindrops cease and the
sky turns to blue there silently appears an array of colors just as beautiful as
any fireworks display we host today. I
do not believe anyone ever ignores the rainbow when they see it span across the
sky. We always shout and point, "Look, there, over there. It's a rainbow!" And it is placed there to celebrate a promise God
gave us many, many generations ago.
Then there was a special
pillar of cloud that God formed, just for the Israelites, to lead them by day,
and a pillar of fire, he formed, to lead them by night. Can you imagine the expectation of seeing
that fluffy, pillory white cloud and then to have it change into a fiery furnace
of color as darkness dropped across the land?
Yet another
wonder happened when the heavens opened and the Spirit of the Lord descended
like a dove. That could not have been a
silent moment when Jesus was baptized. The
heavens opened and there was a voice booming out. The sound must have been louder than the
announcements of a bottle rocket in a fireworks celebration. I can hear it now, “This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased.”
Louder still and
much more impressive was the day there was darkness over all the land. It was the ninth hour when Jesus, himself,
cried out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” This was when Jesus was taking all of our sins
upon Himself and God saw, heard, and felt the despair. The answer came with a loud sound. It had to have been much louder than a
fireworks show. “The veil of the temple
was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the
rocks rent. And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which
slept arose,”
This Fourth of
July let us not forget the celebration of lights that God has given us
throughout the ages. There will be yet another
much more beautiful celebration to come. It will
come with a loud explosion, as well. It
will come in the twinkling of an eye. “For
the Lord, himself, shall descend from the heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise
first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:”
I can only
imagine what a fireworks display this will be as those who have rejected God
watch as God’s children blast into the air to join Him in the sky! It will be a time of despair for some but a celebration,
indeed, for the believer.
