Fireworks

Happy Birthday America!!! Today, all over the country, we celebrated our independence day. Here in Chicago, it was overcast, dreary and rainy off and on all day. In fact, it was probably one of the rainiest 4th of July I can remember since moving here 17 years ago. After church, Faith and Nunay invited to come over to their house to rest until Frendell was done with all his meetings. I'm so fortunate to have friends who live close by and are willing to have me over. I was so tired, had a headache and feeling more pain today, probably coz I did something everyday the last week. Faith made sure I was comfortable and I felt bad that the kids were ushered out of their playroom for my sake. I took a nap and I was so glad I got to rest. Poor Faith had to stay home because of me :-( while her family got to do a fun activity outside.

The rain finally tapered off around 6 or so and people started gathering at the park across the street. There were tents for food, moon jumps and even a band to entertain the crowd. As it got darker, I saw more and more people walking down the street with their lawn chairs, they were staking their places for the fireworks show. Should I go out and watch it or stay in bed? I decided to get out and join my neighbors in the celebration. So, I went out there, sat in my chair on the front porch and got eaten by mosquitos. As the first firework shot up in the sky, I watched the crowd that had gathered outside on the street in front of our house. As if on cue, with the master conductor leading, everyone's head turned to the sky, conversations ceased, applause broke out and a collective "ooohhhh" rang out in the crowd. As colors of red, green, purple and yellow burst out in different shapes and forms (one was even a smiley face), you could hear the kids and adults alike "ooohing and aaahhing" and once in a while, when the roman candles were bursting like crazy and another would shoot up and burst like a shooting star, the crowd would clap and hold their breath. When it got very loud, the babies started crying. I loved watching people's faces and I noticed that as soon as it started and everyone turned their faces up to the sky, smiles broke out and everyone seemed happy.

It made me think about Jesus' 2nd coming. In Revelation, it says that "all eyes will see Him in the clouds of heaven". I looked at the crowd and wondered how it will be then. As the fireworks show was ending, there was just a huge burst of light as one firework after another lit up the sky... and it was so bright and it looked like stars falling out of the sky. And I wondered if Jesus would be coming in the night and all of a sudden the sky would just light up. Will we all run out of our houses to watch? Will we all have smiles on our faces like the crowd watching the fireworks tonight? Will we "ooh and aah"? Will we break out in song and praises? Will we have joy in our hearts because we know He is finally coming to take us home? Will it be like one big block party? It is exciting to think about Jesus' coming and sobering at the same time. I get so bogged down with the clutter in my life that I sometimes forget to look up in the sky and think of what matters most... and that is to focus on getting ready so when the sky bursts open and I see Jesus coming down, I can look up with a smile on my face and tell Him I'm ready to go home to heaven. Its been a full week, full of emotions. So will bid you goodnight and I hope you celebrated our country's independence day with a bang.